Work Text:
Alex woke rather early from the sun peeking through the window he had his hand wrapped around Henry’s waist and Henry’s head on his chest. He loved to listen to Henry’s steady breathing and the light rising of his chest. The sun seeped through the curtain and he could hear the distant sound of the city. He looked over at his clock reading 7:23, he moving one of his hands to Henry’s head and scratched his head lightly “Hen? Baby? We need to get up now.” Henry hummed and giggled. Alex rolled his eyes chuckling at his antics. Henry picked up his head and rested his chin on Alex’s shoulder kissing his cheek. “Noooo” he says whining.
Alex thinks back to the conversation he had with Bea about Henry’s little space and how whenever we want him to regress we should call him ‘Hen’ as a sort of non-verbal way of saying it’s ok to regress.
Alex laughs knowing he has accidentally sent Henry into a little space. Alex boops Henry’s nose and gets ready to roll from the bed. He slips out of the covers and into his slippers ready to go to the bathroom. “I’m going to the toilet and then we are going to get ready for work” Henry whines again but Alex ignores him and enters the bathroom.
Henry pulls out his phone and sees a few miss calls from Pez. He calls him back and Pez tells him he needs to be at the office as soon as possible as there is an emergency to do with the new shelter they are trying to open. He walks to the bathroom door knocking lightly “Alex hon? They need me at the shelter I need to go so I’ll see you later.” He says and Alex calls back “Ok babe see you later love you.” Henry blushes “Love you too” he grabs his bag and leaves quickly (with time to make himself tea but not kiss Alex rude).
Alex was working from home that day not expecting Henry to be back so when he heard a key in the lock about 2 o’clock he was rather worried. He came downstairs holding a frying pan ready to hit any intruder, but he quickly put it down when he saw Pez holding Henry’s bags as he tried to support himself with the doorway as they tumbled through the door Alex rushed towards them grabbing Henry quickly helping him move towards the sofa “Oh my god! Pez what happened?” Henry was giggling and Alex knew he had put himself in a little space due to whatever had happened, Pez didn’t know that he regressed , Alex quickly hurried Pez into the kitchen away from Henry to work out what happened “I don’t know dude, we were working when suddenly he ran to the bathroom vomiting into the toilet coughing, sneezing with a nose running so I brought him home” Pez explains, Alex knew Henry had gone into his little space as he hates being sick. “Ok thanks Pez I’ll look after him, he probably won’t be in tomorrow but anything thanks me” he said quickly but not obviously getting Pez out the house so he could properly look after Henry.
Once Pez was safety out of the house Alex moved into the living room seeing Henry laying on the sofa quiet tears falling down his face, he was sniffling and had a runny nose. If Alex wasn’t so enthralled in trying to help him, he probably would have taken a good few minutes to admire how cute he was. But within seconds of Pez being out of the house Alex moved to Henry’s side kneeing down whipping him tears “Daddy I sicky” he said more tears spilling from his eyes “I know baby how about we get changed then Daddy will put on Bluey and you can have cuddles?” Henry nods cautiously and Alex quickly runs to their bedroom grabbing some black joggers and matching black hoodie.
Whilst he was digging through their wardrobe he head Henry cry “Daddddy” and Alex could hear the sadness in his voice so he ran as fast as he could luckily still clutching the clothes he had got for Henry. He charged into the living room to find Henry with a small amount of sick down his shirt and tears staining his face a small pool of sick on the floor “Daddy I sick den” Alex sees him looking so sad “I see little one how about we clean you up yeah?” Henry nods slowly and Alex reaches for Henry’s hand and he accepts as they move to the other sofa.
Alex cleans Henry’s face up removing the remaining bits of sick from the corners of his mouth. “Baby is that better?” Henry nods. Alex slips him into the joggers and hoodie squeezing his cheeks. Alex gets up for a moment to go to the bathroom and comes back to Henry crying “I miss Bea” he says in the most adorable voice fully balling his eyes out now Alex quickly jumps to find the toy box “Hen look, Daddy has some who wants to say hi with some friends.” Henry pulls his hands away from his eyes for a moment to see Jon his eyes light up and reach for him quickly. “Where his fwends?” He asks and Alex pulls out 2 more teddies for Henry to play with.
Soon he is happily babbling away crisis averted. He starts sucking his thumb but Alex quickly helps out by replacing that with his pacifier. He soon lulled to sleep and Alex drifts off next to him Bluey still playing in the background quietly.
Alex wakes up before Henry luckily and slips out from beneath his to go and make some breakfast and tidy up some bits. He finds a bottle of medicine for fevers and gets it out knowing that Henry won’t want to take it he works on a plan to bribe him. He plates up some toast and beans one of Henry’s favourite little meals. He makes sure the beans and toast aren’t touching because heaven forbid they mingle other than in Henry’s mouth. He even gets a sippy cup of milk out for him knowing it would be soft on his tummy. He gets out the blankets and stuffies that were missed yesterday and takes David out for a quick walk before returning to a very upset Henry.
As soon as Henry hears the door he runs towards it accidentally tripping over it. Alex rushes to him “Little one, no don’t cry it’s ok. Just a little tumble don’t worry Daddy’s here now.” He says soothing Henry by bringing him into a big hug. David has already moseyed his way to his water bowl and having a lay down in his crate.
Henry is still whimpering from his fall even as Alex picks him up (with much effort, Henry may have the mind of a baby but not the weight of one) and places him on the sofa. Still stoking his hair he asked “Little one, why were you off the sofa and running?” Henry mumbles something around the edge of his blanket as he nibbles it but Alex gently eases it out of his mouth so he can answer “I couldn’t find uww” he mumble and Alex stokes his head “I know little one but you shouldn’t be up ok? Daddy needs you to stay here until he gets back, you need to get better” he explains and Henry nods softly. Alex grabs the medicine from the counter top and brings it to Henry, Alex understands that Henry feels very young right now
so he may be able to use a different tactic to have him take his medicine. “Hen? Bud? Look what Daddy’s got” he says showing Henry the bottle Henry babbles at it questioningly “It’s magic drink Hen, it’s going to make you better, would you like to try it?” Henry’s eyes light up at the idea of trying ‘magic drink’ so he nods enthusiastically, very excited. Alex pours out the suggested amount and slowly spoons it into Henry’s mouth. It’s strawberry flavoured Alex thinks it shouldn’t taste too bad. Henry nods approvingly and turns his attention back to the TV. Alex laughs at his short attention span.
“Hen do you want something to eat?” Henry thinks on this for a minute and nods slowly. Alex brings him the little plate of food and lets him tuck in a big smile on his face. Of course he eats it in such a messy way (somehow he gets 3 beans in his hair that Alex promptly picks out and feeds to David much to Henry’s disappointed). Alex grabs a pack of wet wipes and cleans him down.
After 2 days of little Henry and time on the sofa watching a lot of Bluey (Alex has never been so thankful for their 154 episodes). The first day Henry is back at work Alex can’t help but be a little sad he misses Henry’s little giggles and babbles but he’s sure he’ll get to hear them again soon.