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The phone rang one, two and three times, before Blaise heard the other side answer, and a sleepy, “Hello?” followed it.
Blaise let out an odd noise, the first thing out of his mouth being, “-Should he be eating pistachios?”
There was a long pause on the other end before he heard a muffled, “-The shit you call me for at three in the morning, is getting ridiculous. What?”
Blaise sighed, taking a few steps away from the door to the living room, where Harry was sitting with a large bag of pistachios in his lap, shelling them on rote while he watched a late night infomercial on some weird hose thingy. He looked entirely fascinated, but Blaise was pretty sure that he was mostly too tired not to be enraptured by the colourfully loud commercial right now. Harry wasn’t his little boy right now, he was his boyfriend right now, not his baby, and they had an agreement not to treat Harry like he was a little kid while big, so while Blaise knew it was probably best to send him to bed right now, he wasn’t going to press that button unless forced.
“He’s watching late night infomercials, and he’s eaten like, half a bag of pistachios. I thought if you were allergic to one nut, you can’t eat all of them in case they’re all contaminated or something?”
There was a loud sigh from the other end of the phone, and Sirius -who was getting up early the next morning to go to a meeting in Little Surry, and did not have time for this- seemed to think that over. “Well, no, not always. The bag usually says if the nut was processed in a factory that handles other nuts, and Harry likes pistachios… well, sometimes.”
“Sometimes?”
“...does he have an epipen on him?”
Blaise glanced back in the living room again, and zeroed in on the little blue and white pen sitting next to Harry’s leg. “Yeah.”
“Then he knows the risks. Have you done anything to upset him?”
Blaise bristled a little bit at that. “What? No, why would you think that?”
“Because he eats pistachios when he’s upset. He doesn’t touch nuts unless he has no other choice, and I would put pistachios under the ‘comfort food’ category.”
Blaise was quiet for a minute, thinking that over. “I… I have a conference in New York next week. I’m supposed to be gone for three days. He seems a little upset about it.”
Sirius made another sleepy noise of agreement. “Well, talk it over with him. Preferably not at three AM, though.”
Blaise could take a hint, and politely said goodbye before hanging up on his boyfriend’s parent, shoving the phone back onto the wall mount before going back into the living room where Harry was tiredly sitting back on the couch, looking a little less enthused by the commercial now. He was fading fast, and would fall asleep there if Blaise didn’t intervene. “Hey.”
Harry looked up at Blaise with wide eyes, and put the bag of pistachios off to the side, reaching up with grabby hands towards him. “Is bed now, Dada?”
It was adorably sweet. Harry always got so little when he was tired, and Blaise smiled down at him, reaching down to scoop the little up into his arms, letting Harry cling like the tiny boy that he was. Harry loved getting carried around by his big bad veela boyfriend when he was feeling tiny. It made him feel like a real little boy, and he loved it.
Harry nuzzled into Blaise’s neck, eyes heavy lidded and far too close to dropping off now. He was pretty used to sleeping on a schedule, but nights like this -full of insomnia and the need to watch late night tv- happened. It wasn’t anything he could help, but now he was exhausted.
“Yeah, baby boy, it’s time for my little man to close his eyes, okay?”
Harry nodded, “Sleeps in Daddy’s bed?”
“Yeah, baby bird. Sleep in Daddy’s bed.”
***
So, as it turned out, Harry was a little bit upset that Daddy was going away for three days without his precious tiny baby boy who needs all his loves and attentions and maybe some cuddles and cookies and a cake to make sure that they got all the sads out. He didn’t see why Daddy had to go now.
Is he not satisfied with taking care of his little one? Maybe he’s upset cause Harry’s not been feeling as big lately and wants a bigger boy to take care of.
Harry consulted the smartest person he knew in the world, to get their opinion on the matter.
“I doesn’t get it, Mr. Bear, I tolds him that I loves him so so so much today, and yesterday I was nice and didn’t cry when Uncle Draco had to give me a check up for my chest, and I doesn’t get it, does Daddy not want his baby anymore?”
Harry stopped, listening intently to his teddy bear’s reply, and Blaise had to stop before he got into the playroom, heart wrenching in his chest at the words his darling baby boy had said. Harry went on again. “I knows that, I knows, but, but, but Daddy’s still leaving for stuffs that isn’t his baby? Maybe he doesn’t want to be a daddy anymore.”
Blaise came around the corner into the playroom. “That’s not true, little bird. Daddy loves you so much, and I always want to be your daddy.”
Harry turned to look up at Blaise, holding the teddy bear in his lap and sucking thoughtfully on the tip of one finger, before letting go of the teddy bear so he could reach up and ask to be held. Blaise didn’t waste any time reaching down to scoop up his little boy, putting him on his hip and cuddling him close.
“Still my daddy?”
Blaise nodded again, leaning in so he could nuzzle at Harry’s neck, scenting him. “Always your daddy, even when you're too big to need one, or so little you don't know what to do without. Always my baby bird, sweetie pie.”
Harry seemed to consider that, letting Daddy nuzzle into him while he thought that over, still sucking on one finger. Blaise moved over to the dresser where he had sterilized pacifiers sitting in a container for easy access, and he pulled out a baby blue one, gently nudging it between Harry's lips when the baby opened up for it, sucking on it to help relax himself a little.
“Daddy has to go away without me though?”
Blaise sighed. He was actually working less and less nowadays. At first, after he got out of Hogwarts, he'd found it nice to work in his grandfather's mostly muggle company -not entirely muggle though, since it was mainly based in America, an integrated society- and hadn't really put too much thought into not working there.
Working is just one of those things that adults are supposed to do. The world could handle it if he worked a little bit less.
He swayed with Harry, holding him close as he soothingly ran a hand up and down his back. “Yeah, pumpkin, Dada has to go away for a few days, but you won't be alone. Uncle Draco is going to be here with you the whole time, making sure you're okay and doing well. Don't worry, precious, nothing bad will happen, Daddy will come right back, and stay with his baby.”
“Why you gotta go, though?”
Blaise sighed. “Sometimes, adults have to do things they don't want to do, little bird.”
Harry sighed too, long suffering. “It's a good thing I'm not an adult.”
“Yeah, pumpkin, it is.”
***
The morning that Blaise left, he'd been hoping that Harry would be feeling adult, so things might be a little bit easier on him, but no such luck.
Harry was sniffling while he tried to convince his Dada not to go, and Draco ended up swaying in place, holding the little boy on his hip while trying to sooth him from the loss of his daddy for the next few days.
Harry tried to be a big boy, to not whimper and cry with how sad he was that his daddy -the light of his life, the most important person, the man who cut the crusts off his sandwiches!- was going to be leaving him -probably forever- but he couldn’t quite hold it back. He was feeling the sads, and it was icky bad, no good.
He hid his face in Draco’s neck when Daddy came over to give him kisses, the pain being too great for him to face the man for the last time ever in his life. He didn’t like this at all, not one icky sticky bit.
Draco sighed, holding him at a better angle and trying to get him out again. “Come on, angel, it’s not so horrible. Daddy will be coming back, and he wants a kiss from you before he leaves.”
Harry let out a little cry, and reluctantly pulled his head out of Draco’s neck, looking back at Daddy with tearful eyes, lower lip wobbling dangerously. Blaise gave him a sad little smile and leaned forward, giving the little a kiss to his cheek, then the other, and over and over until Harry let out a watery little giggle, looking a little less sad now that he had kisses.
When Blaise was gone, the front foyer was quiet for a long moment, and Draco looked over at Harry, who was looking at him consideringly, as if he was possibly maybe a little bit thinking about crying a little -or a lot- with the newfound loss of his daddy.
“Hey, buddy, you wanna go to the playroom? I know that a certain bear really wants to see you.”
Harry thought about that. Mr. Bear probably misses him bunches and bunches, and not everyone should be so heart breakingly lonely right now. He nodded, a little reluctantly, and Draco let out a big sigh, starting to head off towards the playroom, Harry still in his arms.
“Don’t you worry, angel, you and me are gonna have the funnest time ever.”
Harry wasn’t so sure about that.
***
Uncle Draco was a good babysitter, promise. He made sure that Harry was happy and loved and cuddled. Those are the most important things, in case you didn’t know, for proper little care of course.
Harry needed these things to survive .
He wasn’t so very happy today though.
“Hey, angel, what’s wrong, baby?”
Harry sighed, leaning against his balled up fist while he stared at the table. Draco was making breakfast. “Nothin.”
Draco frowned. “Aww, sweetheart, it’s alright, Daddy will be back soon.”
Harry sniffled. “I know.”
“And he’ll probably have presents for his baby.”
Harry paused, perking up a little at the table. “Presents?”
Draco nodded. If Blaise had half a brain, he’d bring the baby home something special. “Yup, and it’s gonna be amazing, and I bet you’ll love it.”
Harry was a little more happy at that. Good.
***
Draco was a good babysitter, but ultimately, he had no idea how to take care of a baby. And by that, we mean, he keeps bribing the baby with candy and cuddles.
Blaise was gonna be upset at coming home to a spoiled rotten little boy, but he would probably just be happy that his little bird is happy and not crying.
Which is what Draco told himself to justify it as he gave Harry an extra big slice of cake that night after dinner.
Really, he’s just trying to make sure the baby is happy.
Really.
***
When Blaise finally came home three days later, he could hear giggling in the living room, and smiled, happy to know that yes, his little sweet muffin baby who’s perfect and can do no harm, is happy.
He left his bags -and yes, the presents that Draco had demanded he bring back home to the baby unless he wanted to get pouted at for a day- by the front door, and snuck off to stand next to the doorway to the main living room.
Harry was in there, giggling while he hid behind a couch, Draco loudly bemoaning that he’s lost the baby behind him while he searched for the little boy. Harry was still wearing his pajamas and had what looked like the remnants of breakfast all over the front of it. Harry had probably run off before Draco could wrestle him into something clean.
Draco stood up with a grin when he saw who was in the doorway. “It’s too bad Harry isn’t here right now, I coulda swore someone had stopped by with lots of presents for him. I guess he’s not getting those.”
Harry’s head came up so fast, it looked a little painful, and he got up, looking around frantically for a moment before he landed on Blaise, and a squeal of happiness came out. He took off from behind the couch and made a dive for Blaise. “Daddy! Yous came back!”
Blaise caught the little up, hoisting him up on his hip for snuggles. “I did come back. I heard that you were a very good little boy while I was gone.”
“I was, I was, Draco gave me lots of cookies and cake and let me stay up past bedtime, and it was amazing.”
Blaise gave Draco a dirty look, and Draco looked away with a low whistle, face going red. “Did he, now? You musta been really good.”
“I was, Daddy.” Harry sighed, leaning in to give Blaise cuddles. “Dada?”
Blaise smiled. “Yes, pumpkin?”
“I has present now?”
Blaise chuckled, swaying in place with his small boy. “Yeah, baby. You has presents now.”