“Promise me that you won’t be loud around daddy, okay? He’s still not feeling too well,” you warned, fishing around in your pocket for the keys assigned to the house, ready to open the door to shield you both from the cold December weather. “He might be sleeping so you promise me that you won’t wake him up if he is, yeah?”

“I promise, mummy. I promise,” Persephone cooed, shifting her weight from foot to foot as she waited patiently for the door to open, her rucksack strap falling off of her shoulder and her lunch box held tightly in her small fist, a piece of paper - covered with scribbles and glitter and glue and a drawing picturing the life she had outside of school - held tightly in her free hand. “Is tha’ why daddy didn’t drop me off at school today?”

“That is why, sweetheart. He woke up not feeling well and he just wanted to sleep and lay in bed all day to get better for when you got home,” you explained, pushing the door open with your shoulder and letting her scurry in beneath your arm.

Harry was one to look after himself; he always had been from a young age.
He wasn’t one to get sick easily so it hit him hard when he’d woken up that morning with a chesty cough and a closed throat as well as a stuffed-up nose and a head that was throbbing with any slight movement he made.
Getting up at the regular time of half past seven to make Persephone’s lunch and get her up and dressed and ready for school was a challenge for him, with stinging eyes that turned into a coughing mess whilst he was making her sandwich, only getting worse when he made his way up the stairs and woke her up to get dressed, just after quarter to eight; a sniffling and snotting and sneezing mess standing in her doorway as he tried to coax her from her bed, trying not to get too close in order to prevent her from coming down with something that he knew she wouldn’t enjoy having.

But to no avail was the outcome successful.
And he’d felt that God was on his side when you’d appeared in the hallway dressed in a thick jumper and a pair of jeans that he knew needed a wash and were pulled out from the wash basket in the bathroom. A gentle hand pressed to his back as you gave him a soft rub and pressed your lips to his bare shoulder, the slight and unpleasant taste of sweat lingering on his skin. You’d given him a whisper in his ear of running a bath and cooling down would be his best bet to turn too as well as a promise to pop into the store and get some painkillers and flu tablets on the way home from dropping your daughter off.
With a freshly bathed and sweet-smelling body of mint leaves as well as three flu tablets later, Harry was succumbed to sleep and had been found snoring throughout the majority of the mid-morning, waking up for lunch and falling asleep almost instantly after you’d taken the tray from his lap. With a full belly of tomato soup and a fresh mug of tea set on the bedside table for him to hydrate himself on and your presence in the house, it was enough to make him feel content in falling asleep happily and well looked after.
You’d woken him moments before you’d left to pick your daughter up from school, and with a soft mumble of what you presumed was ‘okay, I’ll be awake when you get home. Sort dinner out n’everything for us’, you were out of the door.
“Can I go and see daddy now, mummy? Wan’a show him my drawing that I did at school,” Persephone wondered, dropping her rucksack to the floor and kicking off her polished, black and shiny shoes, handing you her empty lunchbox to be stored in the drawer until tomorrow morning. “D’you think he’ll like it, mummy? It’s got you and daddy on there and there’s a baby because you’re having a baby and it’s our house in the background,” she explained, holding up the paper she’d had a tight hold on throughout the entire journey home.

“He’ll love it, sweetheart. Go and see if he’s awake, yeah? If he isn’t, don’t wake him, okay? He needs his sleep,” you stated, lifting up her rucksack and hanging it up on the hooks holding coats and scarves ready for the winter season peeking around the corner, “I’ll be up in a minute, okay? You’ve got glitter and glue in your hair so you need to have a bath and a hair wash. I don’t want you messing around and causing problems.”

“I won’t, mummy,” she grinned, her socked feet slipping on the floor with each step she took towards the stairs leading her up to the second floor of the house where her father - awake or not - was in bed and anticipating her arrival. “Mummy?”
“Hmm?”

“If daddy is well enough, can he give me a bath and my hair wash?” Persephone wondered, taking each step slowly and one at a time, a tight grip on the bannister as she made her way up the carpet. “Daddy makes my baths fun and he draws funny pictures with my crayons and he lets me give him a bubble beard.”

There had been many moments when you’d witness a moment between the two of them as you stood in the doorway of the en-suite master bathroom, the both of them co-bathing and messing around in the tub with bubbles in her hair and bubbles coating his jawline. Smiles galore and laughter sounding around the room throughout the time Harry promised would be filled with cleaning and washing, yet none of that happened until you’d warned them both to hurry.
“If he’s feeling up to it, sweetheart,” you warned, watching as her figure disappeared and the door to your bedroom was creaked open, her voice being heard with a cough and a sneeze following in suit.
-
“Daddy,” Persephone whispered, “daddy, are you awake?”

A sneeze left Harry before a cough followed in suit, a heavy and chesty cough that required a sip of water to be needed.
“I’m awake, poppet,” Harry cooed, poking his head from beneath the duvet and straining his neck to see his daughter standing in her school attire - a green jumper covering a white polo shirt and a grey skirt paired with white knee-length socks, one pulled up to her knee and one falling down to her ankle - with a small smile on her lips and a piece of paper in her hand, his eyes drawn to the plain side. “How was school? Did you have fun? I’m sorry daddy couldn’t drop you off today.”
“S’okay, daddy. Mummy let me listen to your music on the way,” she grinned, her socked feet slowly walking towards the bed, “are you feeling better now?”

A smile lifted up his cheeks, a dimple popping at the corner of his mouth.
“I’m feeling a little bit better, poppet. I still have a bit of that nasty cold but I’ll be well enough to drop you off at school tomorrow,” he mumbled tiredly, shuffling upon the bed and making room for his little girl to climb into, “come sit with me. I’ve missed you.”

“Missed you too, daddy,” she wisped, “I made you a drawin’ at school though.”

Her socked feet carried her over to the bed, standing to the side Harry slept on as she handed the piece of paper over to his awaiting hand, his fingers curling around the corner as his eyes scanned the array of coloured lines and shining glue ad glitter beneath the lamp-lit bedroom. Her small body climbing up onto the mattress, and instantly falling against his pillow as she curled up beneath his arm, her cheek pressed against his chest as she looked at the paper he was so invested into looking over. His chest tight and filled with love.
“D’you like it, daddy?”

“I love it, poppet. I think I might hang it in my office downstairs,” he mumbled, looking down and catching her eyes, “you even included the new baby, hm? Are you excited about that?” Harry cooed, his lips pressing against her hair. Strands falling from her ponytail and cascading down her face in soft tendrils, tickling at her chin and statically standing on end. “Y’gon’a be a big sister, hm?”

“When is the new baby comin’, daddy?” Persephone cooed, looking up at him with wide and green eyes, a curious look lacing between her features, “Mummy said he won’t be here for Christmas and I wanted the baby here for then so we could share presents together.”

A chuckle left Harry’s mouth as he set the drawing down on his bedside table and coughed into his hand to remove the lump in his throat, his head turned away from Persephone to ensure she didn’t have any germs enter her immune system.
“The baby won’t be here for another few months, poppet. I’d say maybe June or July or next year,” Harry explained, his voice raw and rough and raspy, cracking with each word rolling off of his tongue, “but, it’s exciting, isn’t it? Are you gon’a help me look after mummy when she needs help?”

“O’ course, daddy.”

“She’s gon’a need all the help we can give her,” Harry reasoned softly, squeezing his little girl to his chest before his attention turned from Persephone and over to where you appeared in the doorway, “speakin’ of mummy, look who’s here.”

“C’mon, sweetheart. Time for a bath and hair wash,” you stated, stepping further into the bedroom and pulling open the wardrobe doors, retrieving Persephone’s Minnie Mouse towel from the midst of the white and fluffy towels used for when you needed a relaxing soak. “How are you feeling now?”

“I’m feeling okay,” Harry smiled, “I think I might go for a walk in a bit and get some clear air before we eat dinner. I need some fresh air after being stuck in bed all day,” he chuckled, as Persephone’s face turned up to his.

And he - and you - knew what was coming from her mouth next. A question, need it be.
“Can I come with you?” She questioned.
“But, you’re havin’ a bath and hair wash, poppet. And it’s cold outside, too,” he explained, a frown forming on her tiny facial features, “I might just go and sit down in the garden for a bit before we have some dinner. Would that be better? You can come and sit with me then. Maybe with some hot chocolate and marshmallows.”

“We’ll see,” you smiled, walking over and hoisting her up onto your hip, “c’mon now, sweetheart. The quicker you have a bath, the quicker you can spend time with daddy.”

-
“She wants you,” you smiled, poking your head around the door of the bathroom and looking towards the bed, his figure sitting up with a book in his hand and his face dipped down with wandering eyes taking in the words on the page, “a bath might do you some good as well. The steam will open up your passages and help you breath clearer.”

“You already lathered my chest in vapo-rub,” Harry mumbled, sticking his bookmark into the right page and closing the book up, “tell her I’ll be in in a minute, yeah?”

You gave him a warm smile, turning on your heel and stepping back upon the tiles of the bathroom, bending down and rinsing off the suds lingering on Persephone’s long and brown and curling hair; hair that resembled Harry’s when he was a young teen finding the best hairstyles in life that made him look better than he did at 16-years old.
Once he’d grabbed himself a towel and tied his hair back into a half-bun - hair that he wanted to grow back out to a longer length to go back to the length that many people, you included, had loved prior to cutting it short - he’d appeared in the doorway with a box of tissues and a bottle of vapo-rub to apply beneath his nose to help him breathe a little better.
“Daddy!”

“Hi, poppet. You ready to have a bath with daddy, yeah?” Harry cooed, a smile on his lips as he helped you stand to your feet, pressing a kiss to your cheek as you sauntered from the bathroom. “What have you been drawin’ on the tub then? Let’s have a look, shall we?”

With a groan and aching muscles, he perched himself down into the bath and submerged beneath the bubbles, the water soothing his aching legs and immediately making him feel relaxed and content and happy. His chest feeling less congested and his nasal passages opening up slightly to help him breathe a little better than he had done throughout the day.
“Haven’t drawn anythin’, daddy. I was waitin’ for you to come in and join me,” Persephone grinned, reaching to the little cove and pulling the box of bath crayons out, passing over the blue crayon to Harry as he politely took it from her offering hands, “can we play that x and o game? We played it las’ time.”

“Y’mean tic-tac-toe? O’ course we can,” he grinned, “and m’gon’a beat you this time. You were sneaky last time, weren’t you, hm? You cheated.”

A frown passed over her features as she rolled her eyes and pushed his shoulder.

“Didn’t cheat, daddy. You le’ me win.”

Notes