Zephaniah // z.m

8. Mix of soap and shampoo

Zayn

As Hannah had to leave early today as she had the First Aid Courses, I decided to bathe Zephaniah. It had been a while since I did it myself instead of the caregivers, because usually I'd continue to work after dinner.

I had to say that I was impressed that Hannah had already planned the First Aid Courses, because remembering the other caregivers, they still hadn't done it after weeks had passed. Though, it still didn't really convince me that she was the caregiver I was looking for. It was only the first day after all.

I slowly massaged the shampoo on Zephaniah's scalp and he closed his eyes as he enjoyed the feeling of it. He accidentally dropped the boat he was playing with and let out humming noises, making clear that he loved what I was doing.

"Do you like it, Zeph?" I chuckled softly and reached for a cup, so I could rinse his hair with water, Zephaniah finding the spray right on top of his head a little overwhelming when it came to rinsing off his hair.

Zephaniah opened his eyes and nodded as he picked up his boat, "Feels good, daddy." He raced his boat through the water and made funny noises while doing so.

"Close your eyes, buddy. I'm going to rinse your hair." Zephaniah pressed his little wet hands to his eyes and I quickly rinsed his hair, pouring the cup with water over his head.

Once I was done, I sat down on the closed toilet lid as I had already washed his body and watched him play with his boat.

"Daddy?"

"Yeah?" I replied as his eyes met mine.

Zephaniah looked thoughtful, I knew he was thinking hard on how to say the things that he was thinking in his little, complexed mind. "Do it matter that- that shampoo and soap is together in the bath?"

"No, it doesn't really matter, Zeph." I stood up and grabbed a towel and his underwear, this time choosing white boxers with blue little sharks on it.

"So I won't get a skin in-infectacion?" I couldn't help but smile a little by his struggle with the word but also frowned because, where did he hear that?

I corrected him carefully, knowing that his sensitivity gave him negative thoughts sometimes, "Do you mean skin infection?" Zephaniah nodded and looked at me with wide eyes. "No, you won't get that. Where did you hear that?"

"School. Boy had skin.. thing a-and he said because he swim in the lake and there was soap in the lake with purple foam and y-yellow bubbles." Zephaniah mumbled and I frowned again.

The story didn't make sense at all, but then again, Zephaniah sometimes made up stories that didn't make sense as he mixed reality with his imagination. He couldn't help it, though, because he didn't do it on purpose.

"Oh," I hummed, not feeling like pointing out that his story didn't make sense. He would only get sad if I did, and besides, there was no reason to blame such a creative little mind. "Well, you won't get a skin infection because of shampoo, so don't worry about it. Should we get you out?"

Zephaniah nodded and he carefully stood up. I rinsed him off quickly and wrapped him in a towel after I made sure his hands were out of it.

Zephaniah frowned and he clenched his little jaws, "Daddy, daddy I don't w-wwant to bite it," His lip trembled and he tried to pull the towel away from him.

"You don't have to bite it, I tell you every time." I said softly but Zephaniah only shook his head rapidly, hands flapping hard.

"But I know what I feel d-daddy I told you! I don't want a towel, I want it off me." Zephaniah suddenly started crying and I frowned sadly, knowing this had happened before and I just couldn't understand why.