All The Small Things

159

[Luca POV]

Daddy had the day off, and I really wanted to spend the day cuddling him. He only woke up a half hour ago, but I still wanted to be held. I grabbed my collection of stickers and climbed on the couch on his lap.
"Ugh, that hurt, Bubba," He groaned when I accidentally kneed him in the stomach, not super hard. But it was hard enough that I felt bad.
"M sorry..." I quietly apologized, reflexively shying away in case he got angry. It wasn't specifically because I thought Jacob would hit me, but just because I've been hit before when I made someone mad.
"Oh, it's okay. Come here, baby. Dady's not mad," He reassured me as I climbed farther into his lap.

I snuggled up into his chest, trying to warm myself up.
"Your toes are so cold," He commented, rubbing my back.
"Yeah, I don' want socks, though. I jus wanna hold Dady," I mumbled, rubbing my legs together to try and warm myself, sorta like a cricket does.
"Aw, love bug," He said, instantly making me sit up, confusing Dady. And myself. I felt really triggered, to be honest, and for a minute, I couldn't place why. And I was especially confused when I started tearing up. Until I realized that's a large majority of what Kayden called me.
"Baby, what's wrong?" He asked, sitting up and patiently waiting for me to say anything.
"I don like that name..." I whispered, rubbing my eyes.
"Which one?" He gently asked, rubbing my side. I really didn't wanna say it out loud, so I fingerspelled it slowly for him.

L-O-V-E B-U-G

"Aw, baby. I'm sorry," Dady apologized, pulling me closer and kissing my face.
"You don't gotta be scared to tell me. You can be louder," He told me, making me realize how quietly I always set boundaries. Which is probably why they're easier for people to ignore.

"Say, 'I don't like that!'," He loudly encouraged me, making me giggle a little bit. "Copy me,"
"I don' like that!" I repeated in the same volume level as him.
"Yes! Exactly. See, baby? You need to be loud sometimes. Cause sometimes, people won't listen unless you yell a little," Dady encouraged me, cupping my chin in his hands. I grinned and let Dady lay back down, making me lay down with him. Which I didn't mind. Until I remembered I had stickers and could cover my daddy in them.

I gasped and climbed off the couch and ran to go find all my stickers under the bed. It only took a couple of minutes for me to find all of them and come back out to the living room.
"Dady, stickers," I told him, climbing on his lap because he sat up.
"I see! They're so cute," He agreed, wrapping his arms around my waist. I started carefully peeling stickers off the sheet, carefully considering where I wanted to place them before sticking them onto Dady's face. I was sticking to a theme of anything I found cute. Which was a lot of things. I managed to put, probably, close to twenty different stickers on him before I decided it was done. But I didn't bother counting and didn't entirely know how to count all the way when I was little.

"Do I look pretty?" He asked, smiling at me and making me laugh a little.
"Dady's always pretty," I answered, setting my sticker sheets on the coffee table.
"Aw, you're so sweet. How many stickers did you put on me? Can you count them for me?" Dady encouraged me, making me pause and start counting aloud.
"1,2,3,4,10,9,12,7,18..." I listed as I counted for each sticker. "18," I decided.
"Really? I can't believe you can count that high," He gaped, making me grin.
"Dady, go 'side?" I asked, suddenly wanting to go out.
"Mmm, I don't know. You might have to drag me out there," He teased me. Which I didn't really understand.
"Nooo, Dady. You gotta take me," I reminded him, making him start to laugh.
"Righttt. I forgot," He agreed, setting me on my feet before standing up to go get dressed.

He just changed into black, baggy sweatpants and a dark blue hoodie. It was starting to get a lot warmer, but you still wanted a jacket. It kinda felt like fall if it were a little bit cooler. I was in my dinosaur Jammie pants and one of Dady's black hoodies. And I put my boots on just cause.
"Dady, c'mon!" I whined, hanging onto the front door while he double-checked he had everything.
"Okay, Mr. Impatient," Dady said, finally giving me the go-ahead to open the door.