Caught Your Love (Nicky Harper X Reader)

The Secret

Another tough day of school is over, and all of the kids are excited as they enter the house. After many hours of hard work and tons of difficult thinking, they can finally relax. The first thing the kids see is Tom awkwardly standing near the fish tank.

"Hi, Dad," Ricky enthusiastically greets him.

"Nothing!" Tom shouts in response to the greeting. The weird and completely out of context answer confuses the children. His hand is clutched behind his back as if he's trying to conceal something.

"What's in your hand?" Dawn questions.

Instead of showing them the hand they want to inspect, Tom lifts the hand that has nothing in it. "Like I said, nothing," he scoffs.

The children aren't fools, though. What they are is persistent. "What about your other hand?" Dicky asks with a tilt of his head.

Tom quickly switches the object into his opposite hand, which he thinks is super sneaky. The reality is that everyone saw him do it. "Nada."

After a few seconds of silence, Dicky's shoulders lift into a shrug. "I'm sold."

"Oh, come on, Dicky," Y/n chastises. "It's an act. He's obviously hiding something."

"Yeah," Dawn agrees, "let's see both hands."

Tom is running out of options at this point. The only thing he can think to do is hold out his hands with his palms facing toward himself. Nicky isn't having any of it, though. "Hey, Dad, jazz hands!"

Tom can't resist the alluring jazz hands. As soon as he opens his hands, though, a tiny dead goldfish gets tossed into the air. Before Dawn has a chance to move out of the way, it hits her in the center of her forehead. The natural reaction for everyone in the room is to scream.

"Aah!" Tom gasps in anger, glaring in disgust at his hands. "Jazz hands! I always fall for jazz hands."

"Goldie?" Dawn gasps in horror upon seeing her once very alive pet fish lying unmoving on the rug.

"Uh, no. No, no, no, no, no, no." In a last ditch effort to save this horrible situation, Tom pulls out a plastic bag with another goldfish inside it. "This is Goldie," he tells the horrified kids.

Dawn stares daggers at the bag before asking the question that's on everyone's mind. "Why is he in a bag?"

Tom's brief hesitation gives his lie away before it's even out of his mouth. "I was just taking him for a walk." When Dawn tilts her head in disbelief, he quickly adds, "He likes to see the koi pond at the mall."

Dawn isn't falling for his tricks. She simple stares at him with fake patience. "Dad," she sternly says.

"Okay," he gives in, "I like to see the koi pond at the mall."

"Dad!" Dawn's frustration finally erupts out of her.

The sigh Tom heaves can only be described as weary and apprehensive. "Fine. Listen, sweetie, I have to tell you something." He carefully wraps his hand around Dawn's arm and leads her a few feet away from the others, who continue to stare at the both of them. He makes sure that he's eye level with his daughter before finally revealing the disturbing truth. "Goldie swam his last lap, kiddo, and I didn't want to upset you, so I was just trying to replace him before you got home."

If possible, Dawn looks even more disturbed than before. "So Goldie's really gone?" she questions in a pitifully sad voice.

Dicky opens his mouth before Tom has a chance to answer. "I forget," he remarks. "Is this Goldie number seven or Goldie number eight?" The elbows that he receives to his ribs quickly remind Dicky that he wasn't supposed to open his mouth.