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After five minutes of frantic searching, Phil groaned in despair.
They were out of coffee.
Most of the time, they could make it through two weeks between their grocery deliveries, but apparently this was not one of those times. Phil supposed it was largely due to the fact that Emma hadn’t really been sleeping in the last week, which meant neither he nor Dan had gotten much sleep, either. Unfortunately, the crabby sleeplessness was augmented by the fact that Britain was currently experiencing a horrific heatwave and their flat had no aircon. It had been a rough week.
Phil trudged back into the lounge to tell Dan about the coffee situation, but stopped, in awe of the sight before him. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to seeing such a touching domestic scene.
Dan was gently swaying with their 9-month-old adopted daughter on one hip and one hand supporting her bottle of milk. Leaning against the doorframe, Phil took it all in slowly and happily. Dan’s eyes were surrounded by dark circles and his hair was an absolute rat’s nest, but he still looked at Emma with such adoration in his eyes that Phil found it hard to breathe. Dan had the cutest gentle smile on his face as he gazed into Emma’s eyes and hummed a made-up song.
After a minute or so of Phil watching from the doorway, Dan looked up and saw Phil. The delicate smile grew into a relaxed grin that had Phil’s heart thumping even harder with affection.
“Hi,” Dan giggled.
Emma giggled and gurgled in response to the noise from Dan. Dan turned his head to look back down at Emma with a loving look, then copied her gurgle.
“Aboo da wa? Abba da woo da?” Dan shook his head gently with a bright smile on his face, still staring at Emma.
“You’re so cute,” said Phil. He walked over to Dan and Emma, leaning across Emma’s small body to press a chaste kiss to Dan’s lips.
“Yeah, well, you’re pretty sexy,” Dan teased.
Phil gasped indignantly and covered Emma’s ears. “Dan! Tiny baby ears!” He giggled a smidge too much for Dan to believe the reprimand, though.
“Alright, Grandma.” Dan rolled his eyes. “It’s true though,” Dan said with a wink and a smirk. “You are incredibly-“
Phil slapped a hand over Dan’s mouth before he could finish. “Baby ears!” he insisted sternly, pretending to be offended on Emma’s behalf.
Dan giggled and kissed the palm of Phil’s hand, before reaching up with the hand not supporting Emma to pull it away. He held Phil’s hand, letting their palms dangle between them. “Did you put the coffee on?”
Phil sighed dramatically, sounding exhausted. “No, we ran out. I just came in here to tell you that I would go get more.”
“Ugh, okay,” Dan huffed. “Could you pick up Starbucks on the way back? I don’t want to have to wait for you to come back and then make the coffee and everything. I’m kind of dying.“ Dan turned his face back towards Emma and spoke in a slight baby-talk voice, “ Isn’t that right, Emma? Isn’t that right? And it’s your fault, yes it is!” He booped her nose, which made her giggle.
Phil chuckled. “Of course I’ll get Starbucks. I’ll be back soon.” Phil bent over a bit to look more directly into Emma’s eyes and smiled at her. “Be good for Daddy, okay?” He kissed her forehead and straightened up as she let out the perfect baby-talk screech of joy.
“I love you,” Dan said. He pulled Phil forward and kissed him again, before gently pushing him away. “Now go get me some coffee before I lose my mind.”
Phil laughed and reached his hand out to brush a stray sweaty curl back from Dan’s face. “I’ll be right back.” He left the room and Dan heard the front door close behind him a minute later.
Dan looked down at Emma again. She was holding her own bottle, but wasn’t really drinking from it anymore, so he took it and set it down on the coffee table.
“What shall we do, then, Emma?” Dan took her off his hip, holding her by her underarms, then lifted her above his head and swung her back down to his chest to the sweet melody of hysterical giggles.
Dan grinned. This was his favorite part of being a dad: making his precious little girl laugh. Her big blue eyes and dark puff of hair, combined with the endearing chunky baby fat, made every giggle that much more endearing, and it always gave Dan a rush to realize that she laughed because of him. The joy that idea brought him was unreal.
He set Emma on the ground to move some toys out of the way so they could play on the floor, and she immediately took off towards the tall rotating fan in the corner that Dan had turned on to try to cool off the room. Dan let her slowly waddle in that direction for a moment as he cleared the area, but swept her up before she could grab the fan and get her petite fingers stuck. He brought her back over to the play area he set up and managed to distract her for about a minute before she clambered up and made a break for the fan again.
“No, Emma, we don’t touch that. That’ll hurt your fingers, and we don’t want that,” Dan said as he picked her up again. He leaned in close to her face and smiled, shaking his head and affecting his Ultimate Baby Voice. “We don’t want that, no, we don’t want that!”
Emma giggled and grabbed Dan’s nose, arms and legs flailing somewhat wildly.
Dan laughed. “You are too cute, little miss Emma.”
He brought her back to their play area and handed her a miniature ball, and she was distracted yet again.
It didn’t last long, however, and Dan soon found himself picking her up, setting her down, and chasing after her again repeatedly. By the sixth or seventh time, he was even more exhausted and hot than before and slowly growing more and more irritated. He hadn’t gotten enough sleep in so long, the lack of caffeine was starting to really get to him, and he was so done with Emma’s inability to listen to his instructions. Dan knew it wasn’t her fault that she wasn’t old enough to understand yet, but he felt so helpless when she continued trying to do things that would hurt her.
“Emma, no! Stay over here!” he cried desperately, practically begging his daughter for a moment of peace. She snuck past his arms and he dove after her again. Emma made it to the fan and reached up to touch it, but Dan made it to her just in time. From behind the baby, he bent over, accidentally putting his face directly in front of the rotating fan and managed to pick her up before she could hurt herself. “We are not playing with the fan, Emma. No.”
Something occurred to him this time, though, as his voice echoed back to him when he spoke near the fan. Dan remembered how he and his brother always used to like talking into the fans and hearing how weird their voices sounded because of it. Maybe he could try that with Emma. Of course, he would have to hold her back from the fan so she wouldn’t grab it, but he could totally do that.
Idea now set, Dan turned away from the fan, still holding a squirmy Emma, and grabbed a nearby chair. He moved the chair in front of the fan and sat down with Emma in his lap, arms wrapped securely around her torso.
At least this’ll cool me off a bit for now, even if she’s not entertained, Dan thought with a sigh.
The moving air only sort of helped to push away the heat, however. Mostly, it just pushed warm air directly into Dan’s face.
Dan sighed in irritation at how the fan just changed how the heat reached him rather than actually cooling him off. Hopefully, Emma would be entertained enough to make Dan’s plan worthwhile.
“Okay, Emma, since you’re so intent on this fan, I’m going to show you something.” Dan leaned forward as the fan swung around to face him and Emma, then spoke into it. “Hello, Emma! Doesn’t this sound silly?”
The fan made Dan’s voice slightly tinny, echoing back to him and Emma with undertones in a higher pitch.
Emma giggled softly, but mostly sat entranced by the slight distortion of her dad’s voice.
Dan leaned back a few centimeters as the fan rotated away, then leaned forward again to say “Ahhhhhhhhhh” into it when it spun back around.
Emma giggled again, then reached forward in Dan’s lap to grab the fan.
“No, no, stay back,” Dan gently warned. He wrapped his arms more firmly around her middle and trapped her hands under his forearms, giving her just enough room to wiggle to give her the illusion of freedom while still keeping her from hurting herself on the fan.
Dan leaned and yelled into the fan a few more times before Emma finally began to catch on. Almost.
“Ahhhhhh,” Dan said again. He had lost track of how many times he’d done this now. He leaned back slightly, as usual, to wait for the fan to swing back.
“Ahhhhhh,” said Emma.
Laughing, Dan shook his head. “You’re so close, Emma! The fan turned away, so it won’t make the noises anymore. You have to wait for a time like this,” Dan explained fondly, leaning forward and yelling into the fan again when it was positioned correctly.
As the fan turned away, Emma yelled like Dan but missed the echo again.
“Well, you’ll get there. You’re just so adorable trying, though.” Dan pressed a kiss to the top of her head and continued the game, Emma still failing to yell at the right time.
While they goofed around, Phil returned from the store, but Dan didn’t notice Phil come in. Phil dropped the instant coffee off in the kitchen and made his way to the lounge, where he could hear voices and giggles.
What he saw was truly the sweetest thing he’d ever witnessed.
Dan had a huge grin on his face, as did Emma, and Dan looked like a total dork as he leaned towards the fan and yelled while Emma giggled and missed every time.
Phil immediately took out his phone to film this amazing incident, setting everything he was carrying down onto the floor for a moment. After he caught about a minute of Dan and Emma’s silly game on video, he picked up the goods again and made his presence known.
“You two are too perfect for this world, you know?” he said softly, not wanting to disturb the moment.
Dan’s head snapped around at Phil’s voice, mouth already open around a wide smile to reply, but froze with his mouth hung open when he saw what Phil was carrying.
Phil had brought home not only Starbucks coffee, but also a chocolate bar and a bouquet of red roses for Dan’s hopelessly romantic side.
“I brought a surprise for my extremely adorable and wonderful husband,” Phil said with a grin.
“Oh my god, Phil! That was so cheesy,“ Dan groaned through his grin. His cheeks had turned a soft pink and Dan was sure his heart-eyes were on at Maximum Affection.
“You love it,” Phil replied with an awkward wink.
Dan stood up with Emma, resting her on his hip, and gave Phil a quick peck on the lips. “Of course I do.”
“I love you,” Phil whispered with a smile. He leaned in again, kissing Dan more firmly. He rested their foreheads together and smiled.
“I see Emma is enjoying the fan,” Phil said with a soft chuckle. “I may or may not have filmed some of it because it was too cute not to,” he confessed with a grin.
Dan laughed and pulled back from Phil, shaking his head and looking down at Emma again. She seized his chin and giggled.
“Someday, Emma, you’re going to be horrifically embarrassed by the two of us and all these videos your papa can’t stop taking of you.” Dan booped her gently on the nose.
“Hey! You’ve been taking videos, too! You can’t blame the digital scrapbook entirely on me,” Phil whined. He lightly punched Dan’s free arm, then remembered an interesting fact that made his eyes light up. “And, if I remember correctly, you were the one that started it with that video of when we first met her!” he teased Dan.
“Okay, okay, fine,” Dan conceded, shaking his head in fond exasperation. “Maybe both of your dads are embarrassingly in love with you, Emma.” He leaned down and kissed Emma’s forehead, laughing as she grabbed his nose.
Phil let out a loud laugh, then helped Dan pry her little fingers off his nose.
“I think it’s safe to say that she’s embarrassingly in love with us, too.”