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"Izzy, please, we gotta do this before bed."
"No."
Ed combed his hand through his hair, trying not to groan in frustration. He'd been at it for over an hour now, trying every possible way he could think of to get Izzy to let him do his shot. Usually, Stede would be the one to do it if it landed on a small day for Izzy but he was out of town on a business trip for a few days.
Ed wasn't the biggest fan of needles but he knew that it wasn't ideal for Izzy to do his shot alone while this small and by the looks of it he wasn't going to do it at all. He also knew that Izzy would be furious when he was big again and realized he'd missed a week of his shots.
"Iz, please, I just want to make sure you get all of your T, you're not supposed to miss a dose, buddy."
Izzy just shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest with a loud huff.
"We can do anything you want after, I'll even let you have ice cream in bed while we watch any movie you want!" Ed proposed, hoping maybe, just maybe it would be enough.
But Izzy just stomped his feet and glared up at Ed. "No-o!"
"Okay, okay!"
Ed sighed and grabbed his phone out of his pocket. He didn't want to bother Stede, he knew it was late and that his partner was most likely exhausted after a long day of meetings but it was past Izzy's bedtime and he would be cranky all day if he didn't get to bed soon.
He pressed the call button and waited two rings until he heard Stede's voice across the phone.
"Hi, love. Is everything alright?" Stede asked, as Ed usually texted him before calling.
"Yeah, yeah. Just having some…difficulty giving Iz his shot."
"Oh poor dear, can you put me on speaker please?"
"Yeah, sure," Ed said, pressing the button before looking at Izzy who was still sitting on the couch with his arms crossed over his chest and an angry expression across his face.
"Iz, it's mama, say hi,"
Izzy's frown deepened and he looked towards the phone.
"Why not here?" He asked quietly. Ed wasn't sure Stede would be able to hear him until a sympathetic coo came over the phone.
"Oh baby, I'll be home in two days, okay? I miss you so much! But I promise it will go by so quickly, alright?"
Izzy shook his head. "No. Not alright."
"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I know it's hard. But you know what makes time go even faster?"
"Wha?"
"Sleeping! And you can't go to sleep until you let da help you with your shot!" Stede exclaimed. Ed smiled, Stede always knew the perfect thing to say.
"But mama does shot," Izzy said, his face less angry and more concerned than before.
"Yeah I know Iz, but mama's not here right now," Ed said, frowning. Did Izzy not trust him enough to do his shot? He knew that Stede usually did it but that didn't mean he couldn't.
"But- but mama has to! Doesn't work when dada does it!" Izzy explained, his fists balling at his sides.
"Darling, can you take a deep breath for me please," Stede requested, his voice calm and soothing. Izzy let out a soft whine but obeyed, taking a shaky breath in and out before looking back at Ed.
"Can you tell me why it only works when mama does it, bud?" Ed asked, trying not to sound too hurt.
"Cause mama's got the special band-aids that make it work! Won't work without them!" Izzy said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Stede let out a chuckle over the phone. "Oh dear, I see what's happening. Can you take me off speaker for a second, love?" Ed did as requested and put the phone back up to his ear.
"I'm so sorry, dearest, I must've forgotten to put them back in his kit last week. I use the Hello Kitty bandaids on his testosterone shots. He got quite spooked awhile back when it was seeping out a bit more than usual so I told him that those bandages were special and kept it all in."
Despite being exhausted from the last hour, Ed laughed. "Really? That's adorable,"
Stede laughed with him for a moment before saying, "I must've put them back in our medicine cabinet by mistake, if they're not there, then there's a few spare boxes under my sink."
"Okay, thanks love," Ed said before putting the call back on speaker. "Tell mama goodnight Iz,"
Izzy had managed to stick three fingers in his mouth in the minute that Ed wasn't looking. He mumbled something along the lines of 'night night' around his fingers. "Little guy says night," Ed told Stede.
"Goodnight, precious, I love you. I'll see you very soon. Goodnight, Ed, love you."
"Love you too, dove, see you soon, night." He said before hanging up and shoving his phone back in his pocket.
"I'll be right back, lovey, don't go anywhere." Izzy gave an affirmative hum before Ed made his way upstairs to the bathroom where he opened the medicine cabinet to find exactly what he was looking for. There was only one left so he figured he'd grab another box while he was up there to put in Izzy's kit for later.
He crouched down to the cabinet under Stede's sink and barked out a laugh when he saw what was there. Under it must've been at least ten unopened boxes of the same Hello Kitty bandaids even though Izzy only had to do one shot a week.
Ed grabbed one of the boxes before closing the cabinet and standing up. He made his way back downstairs but not before grabbing Izzy's current favorite pacifier, the dark green one with gold sparkles all over it.
He made his way to the living room where Izzy was still sitting on the couch with his fingers in his mouth.
"Hey kiddo, look what I got!" He said, holding up the two boxes of bandaids. He watched as Izzy smiled around his fingers, the distress melting away from his face.
He handed Izzy the soothed who took it with his empty hand and removed his fingers, quickly replacing them with his pacifier.
"Why don't you go wash your hands while I get your shot ready, okay bud?"
Izzy nodded and toddled over to the kitchen and turned on the water. Meanwhile, Ed prepped the syringe, filled it up with the correct amount of liquid, and took the cap off.
Izzy came back and sat back on the couch, rolling up the leg of his pajama shorts so that Ed could do the shot in the proper place. But before he did, Izzy took the pacifier out of his mouth and stopped him.
"Mama puts the band-aid on first," He explained.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Ed asked, he'd never seen it done like that.
Izzy huffed, he hated having to explain things when small. He grabbed the bandaid and tried opening it, struggling for a minute before finally succeeding and placing the wrappings aside. He undid one side that was stuck to the adhesive and stuck that part of the bandaid to his thigh, the other part not yet able to stick.
"So then can put it on straight away after shot an it won't leak," Izzy explained.
Huh. Ed had never thought of that before. He nodded and looked up at Izzy. "Do you want me to count down or just do it?"
"Jus do it dada, but can you talk during?"
"Yeah, of course, baby. Do you wanna watch a movie tonight while we go to bed?"
Izzy nodded and Ed stuck the needle in. "Yeah? What movie?"
"Monster inc."
"Didn't we watch that last week?"
Izzy nodded.
Ed laughed and took out the needle, peeling off the other part of the bandaid and quickly placing it on his thigh. He capped off the needle and put it in the mini sharps container they kept in Izzy's T kit.
"All done! Good job, Iz!"
Izzy nodded, putting his pacifier back in and standing up, grabbing Ed's hand, and tugging on it.
"Jeez Iz, I'm coming!" Ed laughed, making his way upstairs to the bedroom. He was glad he decided to get them both ready for bed before doing the shot, he would not have had enough energy to do a bath after all of that. It was already way past Izzy's bedtime and he would definitely need a nap tomorrow.
He sat down in bed next to Izzy who immediately curled up in a ball next to Ed, nudging his head against him. Ed put one hand on Izzy's head, gently petting it as his other hand reached for the remote.
He turned on Monsters Inc. in the background with the volume down low and crawled under the covers next to Izzy. He wrapped his arms around Izzy like he was a teddy bear and held him close like he knew the boy liked.
"You were such a brave boy tonight, I'm so proud of you."
"Uhuh," Izzy mumbled around his soother.
"Sleep well, angel, I love you," Ed murmured.
"Love you da, ni ni," Izzy said, his voice already sounding like he was about to fall asleep.
Ed sighed happily and pressed a soft goodnight kiss to the top of Izzy's head before slipping into sleep.