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Stede woke up to the loud beep of his alarm on his bedside table. Before he could even reach over and turn it off, he heard a loud groan beside him.
He rolled his eyes and pressed the off button before standing up and stretching out.
"Ed, c'mon, gotta get up." He chided, already going to their wardrobe to get a pair of clothes for the day.
"Babe, it's so earlyyy," Ed whined, flopping over on his stomach to block out the world around him.
"Fine, I guess I'll go take care of Izzy all by myself then," Stede said, pulling on his slacks before looking back at Ed who had quickly sat up after his statement.
"Right then. Shall we?" Stede asked, grabbing the bottle of meds Ed nodded and got up, making his way to the door next to theirs in the hall with Stede by his side.
Stede slowly opened the door, peeking in to see if Izzy was awake yet. He wasn't, which was to be expected. He was on his back, soft blankets piled on top of him as his chest slowly rose and fell. Stede smiled, nodding for Ed to go in ahead while he closed the door behind them.
Edward went up to the bed and knelt next to it so that he'd be at eye level with Izzy.
"Iz, time to wake up, mate." He said, gently cupping Izzy's shoulder.
Izzy grumbled, his eyes blinking a few times before squinting at Ed.
"Mm, hi."
"Hi, love, how are you feeling?" Ed asked, petting Izzy's cheek with his thumb.
"Sleepy," Izzy said, his eyes flickering closed again. Stede walked over, taking a pill out of the orange bottle before closing it and setting it down on the bedside table. He grabbed Izzy's water bottle and went over to him, crouching beside the bed.
"I know you're tired, darling, but you need to take your pills then go on your walk around the house, alright?"
Izzy shook his head, keeping his eyes shut tight. "No. Don wanna."
Stede and Ed looked at each other, immediately recognizing Izzy's smaller demeanor.
"I can get you some juice in a sippy cup for you to take your pills with, would that be better, dove?" Stede asked, setting the water bottle back on the nightstand. Izzy huffed and opened his eyes to look at both of his carers.
"Uhuh, mama," Izzy murmured, reaching up to slip a knuckle in his mouth.
"I'll grab him a soother while I'm downstairs, can you get him up and do his bandages please, love." Stede requested, giving Ed a quick peck on the cheek before standing up and making his way downstairs.
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Ed stood back up, reaching out a hand for Izzy to grab. "C'mon bud, time to get up." The boy whined for a minute before finally obliging and getting up with Ed's assistance. "Good job, kid, see you're already healing!" Ed praised, pressing a kiss to the top of Izzy's hair. "Where do you wanna change your bandages, Iz?" He asked, looking at Izzy as he rubbed his eyes.
"Your bathroom, da."
"Okay let's go, kiddo," Ed hummed, taking Izzy's hand in his to lead him to the large bathroom attached to the bedroom. Izzy always referred to it as Ed and Stede's room even though he slept in there almost as much as they did.
"How much do you want me to do, doll?" Ed asked. He knew when Izzy was big, which he had been throughout his recovery until now, he much preferred to do all of his bandages and drains himself. Ed didn't want to assume just because he was small that would all the sudden change, however, he of course would be more than happy to help his boy out.
"Um…" Izzy started, looking down at his chest for a few seconds before he looked back at Ed. "Need help wit all of it, da."
Ed nodded before getting to work on taking off the Velcro binder and setting it aside before very carefully helping Izzy out of his shirt. The doctors said he'd be able to move his arms above his head after a week but Ed was still sure to be as careful as humanly possible. He piled the shirt on top of the binder and went to gently pull off the bandages that covered parts of his chest.
Izzy was looking down, absolutely in awe of his chest. Ed had known since they were young how much Izzy struggled with it, even when he was small. He and Stede had bought him many large shirts and big onesies for him to feel more comfortable in throughout the last year after little Izzy continued to cry when they told him he had to take his binder off before bed.
"You okay, bud?" Ed asked, wanting to double-check that he was okay.
Izzy continued to stare down at his chest as he nodded. "Happy,"
Ed smiled and threw the bandages away in the trash before grabbing the big tub of Aquaphor Stede had picked up from Costco the week prior. He spread it gently on the parts of Izzy's chest that he'd been instructed to before going to put new bandages on. He put Izzy's shirt back on and velcroed the binder snugly against his chest.
"Ready to go get some juice, bud?" Ed asked, reaching out so Izzy could grab his hand which he immediately did.
Izzy nodded as they started making their way down the hall. "Grape juice, da."
Ed just chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, it's grape juice, kid."
Stede was waiting for them downstairs with a green clear sippy cup with cartoon snakes all over it. "Remember, gotta swallow your pill with the juice or you'll feel yucky later." He handed Izzy the sippy cup in one hand and the pill in the other.
Izzy furrowed his brows and looked at it. He hated swallowing pills when little and outright refused to unless he had his juice with it. But instead of fussing like usual, he just put the pill in his mouth and swallowed it with a big gulp of juice.
Wow, he really must be out of it.
"How'd bandages go?" Stede asked both of them.
"Good, the little guy is healing up nice and quickly, aren't ya, Iz?"
Izzy nodded, too focused on his juice to make any contributions to the conversation.
"Hey Iz, you ready for your walk?" Ed asked.
Izzy shook his head, finally taking his mouth off of the sippy cup. "Don't wanna do walk, no walk da." He huffed, a finger making its way up to his mouth. Stede saw this and quickly went to clip Izzy's soother to his shirt so that he could put that in instead.
"I know you're tired, Israel, but remember what the doctor said? You gotta do three walks a day. They're only fifteen minutes though, that's not too terrible, right?"
Izzy looked at Stede and shook his head. "Wanna watch videos."
Ed couldn't help but laugh at that. Of course he did. "Why don't you walk around the living room, bud? We can turn on the TV so you can listen to it while you walk." Ed suggested, earning a dubious look from Stede in response. "What? There's plenty of room, we'll just move the coffee table up to the couch."
"I suppose that would work, would you like that Israel?"
Izzy nodded, having put his soother in his mouth while Ed was talking.
Ed pushed back the coffee table to make room before grabbing the remote and turning on the TV. He turned on Izzy's current favorite channel, some guy unboxing little toys and showing them off to the camera.
Izzy started walking around in circles around the living room, his eyes mainly focused on the TV. Stede stayed in the kitchen to make himself and Ed a quick breakfast, as Izzy would go for cereal instead. He didn't like eggs on big days, but would absolutely throw a fit about them on small ones, much preferring his crunchy cereal instead.
After the fifteen minutes were up, the video still had two more minutes left which they gladly let Izzy finish as he was walking the entire time. After, Ed exited YouTube and went to grab his plate and Izzy's bowl of cereal from the kitchen to bring over to the living room.
"Do you wanna watch a movie while we eat, angel?" Ed asked, setting their dishes down on the coffee table while Izzy got situated on the couch, wrapping his fluffy blanket around his shoulders. Stede came over with his plate and Izzy's sippy cup, also setting them down before sitting on the other side of the boy.
"Toy Story," Izzy said, grabbing his bowl off the table and shoveling a spoonful of cereal in his mouth.
"Which one, bud?" Ed asked, grabbing the remote and switching over to Disney which they had gotten solely because Izzy had been recently introduced to Disney movies which resulted in him wanting to watch them every time he was small.
Izzy put out one finger before going back to munching on his cereal. Ed hummed in acknowledgment before clicking on the movie and leaning back to eat.
About ten minutes in, Izzy had finished his cereal and nuzzled against Ed with his head leaning against his shoulder. "Are you sleepy, dove?" Stede asked from beside them, gently rubbing Izzy's shoulder.
"Not sleepy, mama," Izzy mumbled. The two men let out small chuckles, seeing how Izzy's eyes had already shut.
Not even five minutes later, they could hear the rhythmic 'in and out' breathing of a fast asleep Izzy happily cuddled between them.