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“Hey, little man, it’s time to get ready for bed.” Travie said as he stepped into the living room, coming over to where Pete was sitting on the floor watching cartoons.
Patrick was currently away. He had an interview with some radio station that specifically requested just him, and it was long enough of a trip that it made more sense to get a hotel for the night. He would’ve preferred to be at home spending time with pete and getting him ready for bed because that’s what Pete’s familiar with, what he knows is safe. Unfortunately that wasn’t how things had played out, so Patrick had called travie and asked him to babysit.
Pete perked up at the sound of Travie’s voice. He glanced up and saw that travie was towering over him, then quickly looked down at his lap. He seemed nervous, so travie reached down to run a hand through Pete’s hair in an attempt to soothe him. The second travie touched him Pete flinched hard, letting out a quiet whimper.
“I know, bedtime sucks, but I think you’ve watched enough tv for tonight. Plus, the faster we go to sleep the faster Patrick will be home, right?” Travie said, bending down to pick Pete up and carry him to the bathroom.
Pete squirmed and growled, trying to back away. It was almost like an instinctive reaction and not a show of defiance, which worried Travie a little. Still, he had a job to do, which was put Pete to bed at a good time.
Thankfully, after a moment, Pete calmed down. He scanned Travie’s face for a moment, then decided he was willing to be compliant. He let travie pick him up, but he still seemed rather tense as he was carried to the bathroom.
“Ok, now your daddy said you don’t have to take a bath tonight if you don’t want to, it’s up to you if-“
“No!” Pete shouted, shaking his head quickly. Travie gave him a suspicious look but brushed it off, assuming the boy just didn’t want a bath tonight.
“Okay then, time to get those teeth cleaned.” He set Pete down on the bathroom counter, then reached behind him to retrieve Pete’s tooth brush and the bubblegum flavoured toothpaste that travie knew Patrick kept for when Pete was little and complained that the regular mint one hurt his mouth.
“You wanna do it?” Travie asked Pete, who just gave him a nervous look. Travie then remembered that Patrick said that Pete would need help brushing his teeth.
Travie put the toothpaste onto the tooth brush and wet it under the sink like he was told Pete likes, then held the tooth brush up to the boys mouth. “Come on, open up kid.”
Pete just gave him a worried frown, glancing between Travie’s face and the toothbrush a few times. He then parted his lips just a little, still looking unsure of himself. Travie decided to try and help, so he cupped Pete’s chin and gently opened his mouth enough to be able to brush the boys teeth.
“There we go, good boy!” Travie praised.
Pete didn’t like this. Pete didn’t like this at all. A foreign object was being forced into his mouth when he was already having a bad night. Logically he knew travie was just brushing his teeth, but the whole interaction was making his skin crawl. Travie was also unknowingly pushing on his tongue too hard. The situation was already very triggering and making him anxious and upsetting his stomach, and now his gag reflex was kicking in. Warning bells were going off in Pete’s head, he needed out.
“Stop moving-“ travie said, holding Pete’s jaw a little tighter when he tried to pull away. Pete’s eyes widened and he started whining, grabbing travie’s wrist and trying to push his hand away. He wanted the tooth brush out of his mouth as quickly as possible before he started crying and embarrassing himself even more than he already was.
Eventually Pete managed to pry Travie’s hands away, just as he leaned over the sink next to him and gagged. Thankfully nothing actually came up, but Pete was still upset. He spit a mouthful of foamy pink toothpaste into the sink, then turned back to travie with a distressed look on his face.
“I gotta finish-“ travie started, but Pete shook his head desperately, covering his mouth with his hand. He felt dizzy and unsure of everything happening, and there were tears pooling in his eyes. travie wasn’t sure what had him so worked up, but he just brushed it off and filled the glass next to the sink with water and handed it to Pete so he could rinse his mouth out.
Travie helped Pete off the counter and lead him to his room, where pete immediately tried to crawl into bed. He was having a terrible time and just wanted this night to be over with. Maybe he would sleep all the way into tomorrow evening when Patrick would be home and pete could curl up in his arms and finally feel safe.
“Hey, come on petey, can’t go to bed yet! You can’t sleep in those clothes and I need to check if you need a new pull up.” Travie said, reaching a hand out to help pete back up and out of his bed.
Oh no.
Pete didn’t want to be changed. Travie was so cool and amazing and Pete didn’t want him to think he was bad. What would travie think if he knew that pete had been so freaked out by having his teeth brushed that he wet himself? He couldn’t even pretend it happened earlier in the day, he had been changed after dinner.
Pete let travie help him up anyways.
Travie got pyjamas out of the closet and Pete was feeling exposed already, even though he was still fully clothed. Then travie knelt down in front of him and reached for the waistband of his pants and Pete couldn’t keep himself together anymore.
He burst into tears, covering his face with his hands. Pete shifted from one foot to the other and swung a clumsy fist at Travie when he made another attempt to change him.
“Pete what’s wrong?” Travie asked, confused and concerned as to why Pete was suddenly acting out like this. Pete didn’t answer, dropping to the ground and making himself as small as possible as he continued to cry.
Travie didn’t know what to do, so he did the only thing he could think of. He called Patrick.
“Hello?” Patrick’s voice sounded through the phone after it rang 3 times.
“Hey Patrick, uhhhhh-“
“What is that- is Pete crying?” Patrick cut him off worriedly, picking up on the background noise.
“Uhm, yeah. That’s what I’m calling you about…” travie started, trying to figure out how to explain what was happening. “He was fine for most of the day, but then around bedtime I noticed he was starting to get a little tense, but I just assumed it was because he didn’t want to go to bed. He seemed nervous when I suggested a bath so I didn’t make him take one, but then he also freaked out while I was brushing his teeth! He kept on trying to pull away and kept whining even though I was using the bubblegum toothpaste and then he gagged real hard and refused to let me finish. He seemed really upset, man. Anyways, then I took him into his room and he broke down crying when I brought up checking his pull up. Then I called you because I dunno what to do, Patrick.”
travie took a breath, staring down at Pete on the floor in front of him, who was still crying. The other end of the line was quiet for a moment, before travie heard a quiet sigh.
“Just-“ Patrick started, then paused for a second. “It’s not my place to say anything because Pete thinks very highly of you and would be upset with me if I did, but just please be careful with him. He’s fragile right now.”
Travie didn’t really understand what Patrick was saying, but he did understand what to do. Mostly.
“Is ‘at daddy?” Pete asked through tears, looking up at travie from his place on the floor. Travie nodded slowly, then handed the phone to Pete.
“Daddy?” Pete whispered into the phone, sniffling and wiping his nose on his sleeve.
“Oh, hi honey, are we having a rough night?” Patrick asked him, taken by surprise at the fact that Pete was coherent enough to talk to him on the phone.
Pete nodded then realized Patrick couldn’t see him, and hummed a little sound of agreement.
“Do you wanna talk about it?” Patrick asked. Pete stood up and walked out of the room without another word. Travie understood and didn’t follow, knowing Pete couldn’t leave the apartment because there was a childproof handle cover on the apartment door.
Now that Pete was alone in the living room and talking to his daddy on the phone, he was already starting to feel a lot less on edge.
“What’s going on, hun?”
Pete huffed, unsure of how to put his feelings into words. Normally when he was feeling like this he would just force himself into Patrick’s personal space until he either felt better or fell asleep, but he couldn’t do that right now. So, he decided to tell Patrick about the one thing he could think of.
“Umm… I had a ac’sident… sorry.” He quickly apologized, suddenly worried that he was going to get in trouble.
“Is there a mess somewhere?” Patrick asked calmly, not wanting to stress Pete out.
“Uh uh.”
“You had a pull up on?”
“Uh huh. Yeah.”
“Then there’s no reason to be upset, baby. Why did it happen, though? Did Travie forget to remind you to take bathroom breaks?”
“No, daddy…” Pete mumbled, shame making his face burn hot. “Travie was brushin’ my teeth and I didn’t like it and I was scared and now he gonna think I’m jus’ a dumb baby b’cause I was scared from brushin my teeth and had ac’sident…”
Patrick sighed quietly, making sure the phone didn’t pick up on it.
“You weren’t scared of having your teeth brushed, hun, and you’re not a dumb baby.”
“What I was scared of then?” Pete asked, confused.
Patrick wasn’t sure how to go about explaining this to small Pete. He and big Pete had agreed to keep this topic of conversation away from small Pete, but that didn’t stop it from coming up sometimes.
“Uhhhh, how about we talk about this when I’m home tomorrow, okay?” Patrick said, hoping Pete wouldn’t ask anymore questions.
“Okay daddy.” He said, dropping it right away, which kind of threw Patrick off. He was expecting more trouble.
“Okay, umm, are you still wet? Did travie change you?”
“He doesn’t know…”
“Pete, sweetheart, you need to tell him, okay?”
“No…” Pete whined, kicking his feet against the base of the couch.
“Yes, you need to tell him so he can change you. You don’t have to tell him why you had an accident, but you can’t stay in a wet pull up.” Patrick tried to reason with him, but Pete just whined again.
“Can you come do it?” Pete asked quietly, and Patrick was regretting even coming on the stupid trip because of how it was affecting Pete. Patrick could tell that Pete was anxious about being changed by anyone other than him.
“You know I can’t do that, honey. I’m far away right now, but I’ll be back tomorrow by dinner time!” He said, hoping it would cheer Pete up.
“Don’t wan’ anyone else to change me…” Pete mumbled, and Patrick could hear the genuine distress in his tone.
“I know, sweetheart. I’m really sorry I’m not there right now. I know it’s hard for you to understand why you’re upset about certain things right now because you’re probably feeling a little foggy, but I promise we will talk about this when I get home, okay?”
Pete whined, but didn’t argue any further.
“Now, can you please let travie change you so you can go to bed nice and cry and comfy? I’ll I’ll stay on the phone with you the whole time he’s changing you so you’re less scared, okay?” Patrick said, and he could hear Pete’s not-so-light footsteps down the hall.
Patrick talked to Pete and kept him distracted, giving travie the chance to get Pete into a fresh pull up with minimal fuss.
Despite what Pete had been worried about, travie didn’t say anything about Pete’s accident, he just got him cleaned up and into his pyjamas, offering a warm smile afterwards.
Travie still didn’t really have any idea what was going on, but he figured Patrick had it all under control. He let the two of them talk for a while, then Pete said goodbye and handed Travie’s phone back to him. He went to talk to Patrick but the call had already ended.
“I’ll be on the couch, okay?” Travie said as he pulled up the safety rail on the bed. “If you need anything you’re allowed to wake me up, I promise I won’t be mad buddy.”
Pete nodded, getting himself comfortable surrounded by his million blankets and pillows. His daddy had once called it his nest and he did not like that very much. Pete was not a bird. He clutched Donnie in his arms and let travie slip a pacifier into his mouth, moving it around a little to warm up the cool silicone.
Travie ruffled Pete’s hair then stood up and said goodnight, leaving the door open a bit so the light from the hallway could light up the room a little.