Jily Oneshots (pt2)

First word(s)

by Startanewdream on archiveofourown.org

Harry is staring at him with pure innocence in his green eyes, not at all looking like he had just thrown in the floor the first bowl of food James had prepared for him. It’s a prankster, his son.

‘Now, come on, Harry, again it’s just you and me’, he says, offering his son the soup that Harry accepts, still somehow managing to mess all his mouth despite James’ careful precision. ‘Say “Dada”’.

Harry babbles unintelligibly.

‘“Dada”’. James opens his mouth, which Harry repeats. ‘Daaaaaah’.

But Harry just keeps opening his mouth, looking at the spoon in James’ hand.

‘I will exchange one spoonful for just one syllable, come on, Harry. Daaaaah!’.

Another happy babble. Harry clearly thinks he is just playing with him. James gives up for the moment. He’s been trying incessantly to get Harry to say “dada” for the past six days, but no luck so far.

After he finishes feeding Harry, he takes his son to the living room, sitting with him on the carpet where Harry’s plush toys are all tousled. Harry crawls immediately to take his stuffed deer, ignoring the other three animals around him, which always makes James feel a bit smug.

‘Yeah, see!’, he takes the deer, raising in Harry’s direction. ‘It’s like me! Dada!’.

‘Dah!’, Harry cries, taking the deer from James’ hand. He blinks at his son.

‘What? Say it again’.

Harry hugs his deer, ignoring him, and James picks him up.

‘Here, Harry. What’s this?’, he points to the deer. Harry babbles again, but his small hands let the deer fall to the ground.

‘Oh’, he looks surprised, looking at his bare hands and then for James’ arms, obviously in search of his toy. Then he opens his mouth. ‘Daaaaaaaahdaaaaaah’.

There is a hopeful smile on James’ face now.

‘What do you want?’

‘Daaaaahda!’

‘You said “Dada”? Yeah?’

‘Dada!’, Harry cries loudly now, his face close to crying, and James picks up hurriedly the deer on the floor. Harry beams right away, hugging the stuffed deer with fondness. ‘Dada’, he murmurs now, much happier.

James blinks fastly, feeling some tears in the corner of his eyes.

‘That’s right, Harry, that’s Dada too’, he whispers, kissing the top of his head, and taking Harry upstairs. ‘Lily!’, he sings. ‘You won’t believe what Harry’s first word is!’

Three days earlier

‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star’, Lily sings softly, cradling Harry to make him sleep.

It’s the fifth lullaby she sings, but Harry doesn’t seem like he wants to sleep, despite being late in the night and that, in the past weeks, he had started following a sleeping schedule.

He is not crying, just watching her with those eyes that are a copy of hers. Lily tried everything. Feeding him, changing his diapers, singing every song he enjoys, and yet Harry keeps his eyes wide open.

Perhaps he can sense their stress lately. They’ve been locked inside the house for so long now; she loves their cottage, but if she was honest, she can’t stand its walls anymore. And James - poor James - is suffering even more. Her husband was made for open air, she knows, though he never complains to her.