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The front door swung open gently and you heard very familiar footsteps inside of the entry room. You ran off from whatever game you and your babysitter were playing to check if your mother was back home from work. Instead you saw your father, John Price, who just returned from his deployment. He crouched down and pulled his arms out to catch you as you thrown yourself right into his arms.
“Daddy!!” You yelled out as he pulled you close against his chest.
“Hey there, pumpkin, missed daddy?” He grinned ear to ear showing his teeth, with other people he was a very rough commanding presence but your entire existence completely melted his defenses away. He leaned in close planting a bunch of kisses on the side of your head as his arms tightened their grip around you. “You have no idea how much I missed you, baby.” He stood up and gave you a few playful swings before changing his grip to hold you in one of his arms, with the other he grabbed his bags. Price stepped deeper into the house and said hi to the babysitter now talking to them. “You can go home earlier today, dad’s back on duty.” He chuckled to himself and then paid the person who took care of you while he was deployed and his wife was at work.
He sat down on the couch with a loud grunt before ruffling your hair. “I got a few surprises for you.”
“Can I see???” You started to use him as a jungle gym wanting a bit more closeness after being apart for so long.
The man simply laughed and ripped you off himself placing you into his lap. “Why would daddy get you gifts if not to show you? Alright here you go.” John opened one of his bags and pulled out a regular grocery bag, inside of it a few toys you were begging him for and a lot of various kinds of candy and snacks. “I also have another huge surprise waiting for you, but I need to take a quick shower and unpack, alright? Can you be patient for daddy?” He planted another kiss on the top of your head and went to his room to unpack, obviously you followed him like a shadow trying your best to help him but in reality making the situation worse. Though he didn’t mind a bit of chaos caused by his little helper. After he put his regular things and clean clothing away he moved on to the laundry room to start a load.
“Can I click the thing?” You were already reaching out for the buttons before he gently stopped you.
“Yup, you can, kiddo, just let me put everything in.” He put all of his dirty laundry inside of the washing machine and added the detergent, then selected the correct setting. “Go on.” He patted your head gently and you pressed the start button on the washing machine.
You followed him once more back to his room where he picked out some fresh clothes. “I’m gonna take a quick shower, wait for me.” He put you on top of his bed and gave you his phone for you to entertain yourself with before stepping into the en suite bathroom and locking the door behind him.
After a while Price stepped out of the bathroom looking way better than he did when he arrived, seeing how you still weren’t done with your cartoon he laid down next to you and wrapped one arm around you. “Any new cool adventures?” He asked with a soft smile looking at the screen, from one side he hated everything related to the cartoons you watched from another he very much missed it.
You simply nodded and let out an ‘mhm’ sound. After the episode ended Price took the phone out of your grip and cuddled with you for a little longer. “Hungry?”
“No…”
“Cuppa?”
“No…”
“Hmm, you really don’t fancy drinking tea with your old man? Alright fair enough.”
The second he seemed not interested in tea you changed your mind. “Daddy… Tea…” Was all that you said to which he shook his head affectionately.
Price went to the kitchen and brewed his usual perfect cup of tea, it was a special one as normally he made strong bitter tea for everyone else, for you it was different. It had more milk than necessary and a lot of sugar so it was sweet. He looked through the cabinets and scratched himself on the head. “Mum forgot to stock up on biscuits?” His eyebrows were raised very high up. “How will we drink our tea now!?” He said playfully before sitting with you by the kitchen island. He put his own tea which was in his usual ‘worlds best dad’ mug and yours in your favorite cup down on the counter.
“Daddy… What cool superhero things did you do?” You crawled towards him to sit down on his thighs instantly wrapping yourself around him.
He had a soft bittersweet smile on his face, he found it adorable how you thought he was a superhero and a secret agent, and he preferred it to stay that way. “Oh you know the usual, a lot of secret missions and superhero duties.”
“Did you save a lot of people?”
“Yeah, pumpkin, a lot, I lost track already from how many superhero things I did recently. How about you, kiddo? Were you behaving while daddy was working? Mommy’s gonna tell me later so don’t even bother lying to me.”
“I was…”
“Were you?”
“A bit…”
“Only a bit?”
To which you simply let out a giggle.
“Alright I see how it is, you little menace!” He started to tickle you after which he turned back to planting a kiss after kiss on the top of your head. “Finish your tea and we can check out the other surprise I got for you.”
Both of the drinks were finished and you followed him outside, seeing a large box in your driveway. Was the surprise the large box? You already imagined all the cool things you could turn it into, dollhouses, bases, different props, but this was not the surprise. Your father stepped close to the box and using his knife he quickly ripped the tape off, he opened the box and pulled out a bike. It was in your favorite color, it was the perfect size, it also had training wheels and a parent push bar behind the seat he would be using to help you out at first. “What do you think, pumpkin? Daddy’s gonna teach you how to ride a bike.”
You nodded eagerly, your mouth dropped down low as you found the design to be the best thing in history of designs (it was not). As John put the bike down to the ground you instantly sat on it and he made some quick adjustments in it to make it more comfortable for you while you played with the bike bell annoying everyone in the radius.
“Alright, baby, lets go!” He saw that you were struggling with the motion of pedaling a bit so he grabbed the bar behind the seat and started to push the bicycle forward. “You’re doing so good, daddy’s very proud, munchkin.” He noticed that you were approaching the garage and warned you about it. “You have to steer as well, we don’t want to crash do we?”
You steered the vehicle away from the garage doing a circle on the driveway and reaching the sidewalk, from which he was still pushing you around the neighborhood. “You’re a natural at this, when are we signing you up for a cycling competition?”
“I wanna go faster!!”
“Well for that you need to pedal faster, it doesn’t happen magically.”
To which you did try to pedal as fast as possible, and in return he started to run around pushing the bike. Once you reached your driveway again he stood for a second catching his breath. “Wanna try without my help?”
“But I don’t want to…”
“Oh don’t worry its not that scary, I’ll be here if anything happens.” He nodded reassuringly and stepped back watching your first ever attempt at trying to ride a bike without any external help. Price pulled his phone up and recorded the way you managed to do a very wobbly circle around the driveway at a snails pace then sent it to his wife. “Oh! I almost forgot!” He ran back inside then came back with a matching bike helmet. “You’ll look so cute in this, I can assure you.” He put the helmet on the top of your head and secured it well. His hands landed on your cheeks to pinch them. “Go on, pumpkin. You can do it, daddy’s here.”
You continued to try your best to pedal forward only able to do small circles around the driveway, the bike was wobbling super hard even with the training wheels you were scared you might fall. Tears started to spill down as you stopped, just seconds later John ran up to you and picked you up holding you against his chest.
“Shh… Daddy’s here, don’t cry…” He placed a long tender kiss on your tear streaked cheek pouring all of his fatherly love into it. “It’s okay, baby… Shh…”
“Daddy, I don’t want it anymore! I hate the bike!” You cried out gently punching his chest in frustration.
“I know honey, I know. It’s fine, you can try again when you’re ready, okay?” He put another kiss on the top of your cheek cradling you against his chest, putting your head under his chin. Your father while holding you with one hand picked the bike up with the other and put it back into the garage before returning back home to focus on making the tantrum go away before your next attempt at learning on how to ride a bike.
At night you climbed into your parents bed as you usually did, laying down in between Price and your mother who both welcomed you with open arms as they usually did. They were temporarily woken up by you and didn’t attempt going back to sleep until they noticed the usual signs of you falling asleep completely.
The next morning Price was in the kitchen already making breakfast while your mother helped you with getting dressed before she had to head to work. All of you sat down by the dining table and got started on your meal. In front of you had two small pancakes cut into tiny bite size pieces, a bit of various fruits next to the pancakes on your plastic plate, and your favorite juice on the side inside of your favorite cup.
You struggled a bit with using the fork on the dish you had on your plate to which Price smiled widely. “Need some help with that, baby?” When you nodded he took the fork and put a piece on it, feeding it to you. After your mother rushed through the breakfast she kissed both you and her husband before heading to work as you and your father still finished with breakfast. “Come on, one more piece for daddy.” He asked after noticing you were rejecting the fork. He took another approach by starting to make airplane noises waving the fork around. “Here comes the airplane! Open up!” When you ate one more piece of the pancake he clapped and brought the cup with the straw close to your lips so you could take a sip. “Do you want to try out the bike again?”
“I do…” You already managed to calm down enough that another try at it did not sound so bad. “But I want you to push me again…”
“Oh of course I will, Daddy’s gonna help out as much as he can until you can do it yourself.”
“But I want you to do it…”
“Nope… After you learn you’re trying it yourself, pumpkin, but don’t worry I’m gonna be next to you in case anything happens.”
You were outside once more, sitting on your bike wearing your helmet as you tried your best to pedal forward, your father right next to you holding the handle so you were completely balanced, this time he was not pushing you forward even though he promised to do so, this was all your work he was just there to balance you. “You’re doing amazing.” When you reached the end of your neighborhood and turned around to drive back towards your house he actually decided to try out some placebo, he wasn’t holding the bar anymore just had his hand near it so you thought he was still holding it and you continued your best to drive forward. Your father continued to throw praise to encourage you. “I guess we have a future pro cyclist on our hands, hmm?” When you reached the house it was time for another round around the neighborhoods sidewalk. “Wanna try it without daddy’s help this time?”
“No… It’s scary…”
To this he simply dropped the fact that you already done it. “You already did that and did an amazing job at it.” He crouched down in front of you to pull you into a hug. “I was not holding you on our way back, you did it all by yourself!.”
“Really??”
“Yup, and you did a mighty fine job.” He stood up and patted your helmet.
You did a few more rounds going until the last house in your neighborhood and back until you felt very confident at riding the bike. The training wheels still stayed for a long time but at least you learned the basics of the skill.