Somebody To Love (Ben Hardy!Roger Taylor fanfic)

one hundred and seven

With all the free time he now has, Roger settled into the role of stay at home dad rather quickly and he has to admit, he's liking it.

He likes getting up in the morning to get Ellie ready for nursery, he likes getting her breakfast and snacking on the crusts of the toast that she refuses to eat.

And if Rebecca's got an early client consultation and she's the one who's gotten Ellie up and out of the house, he likes that he's no longer having to worry about being late for meetings and can sleep in as long as he likes. Or at least until Heather starts to stir in her own room.

He doesn't hear her that morning though and he's just in that place between awake and asleep when the bedroom door creaks open and he doesn't hear little feet padding toward him but he feels Pippi, who's laying on the bed beside him taking up Rebecca's spot, start wagging her tail.

"Pip," he grumbles as it beats against his leg, "Pip, come on now. Stop."

When the wagging didn't stop, he huffs and rolls over, opening his eyes to check the time, only to see Heather is standing by his side of bed and he swears he almost has a heart attack.

"Daddy," she grins, clearly not aware that she has scared him within what feels like an inch of his life.

"Heather," he breathes, finally glancing at the clock, "It's only nine thirty. What are you doing up, Poppet?"

She wordlessly grabs the blankets and starts pulling herself up onto the bed, Roger hovering a hand behind her just in case she needs help.

But she's fine and crawls over him, bony little knees digging into his stomach so she's sat beside Pippi, who's tail is now going a mile a minute. 

She is quite the climber.

Roger turns over so he can watch her, watching as she eagerly runs her hand through the Pippi's fur, giggling when the dog licks her chin.

When she sees Roger watching her, Heather is quick to lay down beside him and cuddle into him.

This is another favourite of his. He wishes that they'd stay this small forever, when they're never too afraid to come to him or Rebecca if they're scared or if they just want a little cuddle.

"What do we want to do today? Hm?" he asks, running his hand through her wild hair, taking a glance out the bedroom window where he can just see the sliver of bright blue sky, "Think it's going to be warm again today. Shall we set the paddling pool up?"

She nods, but knowing his daughter as well as he does, he can tell that she's falling asleep again - something she can do at the drop of a hat.

"Or we could go for a little walk?" he's rambling now and when Heather puts her little hand over his mouth, he can't help but laugh and he presses a kiss to her palm, "Alright, I'm boring you. I'll be quiet."

||-||

When they wake up properly, it's around eleven thirty and after a quick brunch, it's already after twelve and the two of them make their way out into the back garden with Pippi and Heather plays on the decking while Roger wrestles the paddling pool from the shed.

Their garden is coming along quite nicely. Jim had come over and planted some flowers for them, they'd set up a little play area for the girls and while Roger had wanted to put an actual pool in, that idea had kind of taken a backseat.

As the pool fills up, Roger tries to get Heather into some older clothes that she can get wet. Of course, for some reason, toddlers love to be naked so really, he spends twenty minutes running around the living room and kitchen trying to catch her so he can dress her.