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Day3 – I brought you a blanket and some tea
“Hey.” – smiled Robert after he closed the front door. It was a hard day at work, and to get home and see his husband with a sleeping toddler on his lap? It was the best view he could’ve hoped for.
“Hey.” – answered Aaron but his smile faded quickly. He was always quick to ask how Robert’s day went, but today he was quiet. Robert knew the reason of course. Aaron had a row with Annie. She was a big girl - almost 6 years old - and she couldn’t understand why her daddy won’t let her go to one of her mate's birthday party. The reason was simple enough. She had chickenpox, so she couldn’t go anywhere in case she’d infect the others. Obviously, this wasn’t a good enough reason so she decided to kick up a fuss. Now Aaron was the bad guy because apparently, Daddy Robert would’ve let her go. He was cooler. It hit Aaron hard. He knew Annie didn’t mean anything by it, but still, it kinda hurt. Especially since them two were always got on like a house on fire. Robert used to be jealous of that, but then he decided it was ridiculous. And now, seeing his husband’s long face, he wished there was a magic trick to make it all better.
“Where is she?” – asked Robert quietly as he sat down next to him. Abi continued to snuggle up to her dad, snoring lightly, but Robert had to kiss her head anyway. He missed spending time with her, but this week was important enough for him to do some overtime.
“Dunno.” – shrugged Aaron. – “Probably still in the back garden. Last time I checked she wasn’t talking to me after she told me I’m horrible, and that she’s gonna run away.” – he said. He tried to hide how much it hurt him, but Robert knew better. He also knew that Aaron probably checked on Annie frequently, because he wouldn't just leave her to do whatever, but he decided to not call him out on the obvious lie.
“She’s only five Aaron, she doesn’t mean it.”
“I know.” – he sighed. – “At least I have a good few years before this one starts shouting at me as well ey?” – he scoffed as he looked at the sleeping child in his arms. If it wasn’t obvious before, hearing him speaking like this, Robert knew he had to try and fix this somehow.
“You want me to take her upstairs?” - offered Robert.
“No, I’ll go, I wanna cuddle her a little more. At least she lets me.” – he said as he stood up, walking slowly towards the stairs. Robert wasted no time, he went to the window to check if their little girl was still there, - not that she could go anywhere without them noticing, the garden was a closed space thank god - then he took a big breath, grabbed a blanket, and put the kettle on. Five minutes later he was walking towards the treehouse – the one he built with Aaron for the kids – to have a little chat with Annie.
“Annie.” – called Robert. She peered her head out the window of the treehouse before she started smiling.
“Daddy!!!” – she yelled waving at him. – “Daddy! I wanna go to Susie’s party, can I?? Please!!!” – she asked with her big blue eyes. It was very hard to say no to that face.
“I thought you already discussed this with your dad.” – told her Robert as he went over.
“But… but he said I can’t go, and I know that you’d let me go. Right?” – she said still smiling. God, she would try anything thought Robert. To turn on the charm like that? There was definitely a Dingle in her.
“He said no, so it’s a no.” – said Robert firmly. He saw Annie’s face drop.
“But…”
“No buts. You have no idea how much you hurt his feelings with what you said, am I right?” – he asked. Annie looked at him thinking. Robert could see that she indeed didn’t think of the consequences of her words.
“I wasn’t mean.” – she started.
“That’s not what I’ve heard. And before you think your dad said something, he didn’t.” – Annie didn’t say a word to that just continued to look at her dad, so Robert decided to carry on. – “How do I know it then? One look at him was enough to know that he was hurt. He didn’t say it, but it was written all over his face. Saying that he’s horrible when he loves you very very much? It wasn’t nice Annie.” – said Robert and he could see Annie looking at the ground. – “Did you really mean all that?”
“No!” – she said immediately with tears in her eyes. – “I just wanted to go to the party and he didn’t let me.”
“Because you’re still a bit poorly. He probably told you why you can’t go didn’t he?” – Annie didn’t answer, just nodded. – “There.” – said Robert lecturing her. – “He wants you to get better, we both do, and to not pass this on to anyone else. The others wouldn’t like that, would they? Imagine if you were at someone’s party and came home sick. It wouldn’t be nice, right?”
“Right.” – sighed Annie.
“Here.” – said Robert – “I brought you a blanket and some tea.” – he said giving them to his daughter.
“Why?” – she asked confused.
“Your dad also told me that you didn’t want to go home, in fact, you want to run away. The nights are cold, so you’re gonna need that blanket.” – he said as he turned around to get inside. He knew he wouldn’t have to wait for too long to hear her voice.
“DADDY WAIT!” – she shouted. – “I don’t wanna stay here anymore.” – she said climbing down from the house. Robert stopped to wait for her, and after she caught up with him, he turned to her, sat on his heels to be on her level, and looked into her eyes.
“If you wanna go inside, you need to apologize to daddy Aaron, okay?”
“Okay.” – she sighed.
“Do you understand why it’s important?” – asked Robert. He wanted Annie to know the reason, not just to go along with whatever he said.
“Because he’s sad…. because of what I said to him. I don’t want him to be sad.” – she said. Her back was to the door, so she couldn’t see Aaron standing there. Only Robert could.
“And you know why you can’t go to that party, right?”
“Because I can’t get the other kids sick.”
“And because you had a fever last night, you’re still gonna have to go to bed early, to sleep it off, so we can be sure that you won’t get any worse.” – he said, and he could see that his words frightened Annie. She was fine really, but Robert thought a little white lie to pile on the guilt was only fair.
“What if I get sick again?” – she asked. She remembered how bad it was a couple of days ago, how vomiting wasn’t fun, and how she couldn’t sleep because she was itching everywhere. And she wasn’t even allowed to scratch!
“Then we’re gonna take care of ya. As always.” – she heard a voice from behind her. She spun around to see Aaron with crossed arms, standing at the doorway.
“Daddy!” – she called out running to Aaron. – “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean what I said! I love you.” – she smiled, as she hugged him.
“I know. I love you too.” – smiled Aaron hugging her back as he looked at Robert mouthing a thank you to him.
“Daddy? I know Abi’s all cute because she’s a baby…” – she waved with her hands. Robert chuckled at that while Aaron tried to concentrate on his daughter’s words. – “… but… am I still your princess?” – she asked out of the blue. It baffled Aaron.
“Course you are! It’s not a race, it’s not something you’ll lose just because you have a baby sister.” – told her Aaron.
“You’re also a big sister, so you’ll get to boss her around when she’s older.” – said Robert winking at her.
“Really?”
“Really.” – they said at the same time.
“Alright, let’s go inside before we all catch a cold.” – said Robert ushering them in. Annie went in first, leaving Aaron a couple of steps behind.
“You’re amazing.” – whispered Aaron before he leaned into Robert to give him a kiss.
“Abi’s still napping?” – asked Robert after a few seconds. He didn’t want to reflect on Aaron’s words.
“On the sofa, watching some kids' program. I want her to sleep through the night so I didn’t let her sleep that long.”
“How about I get dinner ready? Tell the boys to get downstairs. Then we’ll have a quiet night in.”
“All of us?” – asked Aaron. He knew it wasn’t easy nowadays to get Seb to join them. Being a teenager was exhausting enough to not want to spend your free time with your family.
“All of us. Seb can manage for one night, right?”
“You’re telling him that.” – laughed Aaron before he ran upstairs to check on the boys. Robert couldn’t help but smile. He didn’t like seeing Aaron upset, so if it happened from time to time, he made it to his mission to make things better. He was glad it only took minimum effort tonight.