Chapter 7

Alick

"I was very good. I ate my lunch and I didn't make a mess." What else? What else? What would Kenzie say to get a present? "I helped put things away and I told on the men."

Yes, I'd been very good.

Daddy was trying to look boring and like he'd forgotten my surprise, but his lips twitched and he almost laughed. "You were a very good helper. What were we going to do next? I forgot."

He was so funny.

"My presents!" I didn't care if the silly men heard this time. "I was good."

"You were very good." Daddy thought I was so good he even leaned over and kissed my cheek. "Alright, should we sit here at the table for your presents or on the bed?"

He looked around and frowned. "I don't have too many options for sitting."

"The bed." Then he had to cuddle me. Lorne said so. "We can go to my house next. I have lots of sitting places."

I liked sitting.

Daddy got a big Christmas present kind of smile. "I think that's a very good plan."

Yay.

I wanted to bounce but I was careful and walked to the big bed at the back of the trailer. I didn't even jump on it. I sat at the end and looked very patient. Kenzie said good boys got better presents from their Daddies.

Still looking very happy, Daddy was silly and shook his head as he opened a tiny closet and pulled out a box from the bottom. "I've been picking out things for you as I traveled. I didn't know who you were then, so some of it might be random, but I was thinking of you."

"That's the special part, Daddy. Kenzie and Lorne said so and Stefan even agreed with them. He's smart and he tells them when they're being silly." I only wiggled a tiny bit as Daddy brought me my pretty box. "Daddy, my box has plants on it."

He frowned like they'd appeared by magic. "You're right."

Turning the box around in his hand, he studied it. "I thought it was just green swirls and I wanted to have something special to put your presents in."

"You knew I was plant special, Daddy." Magic was amazing. "You knew your mate would like plants."

Sitting down at the head of the bed, Daddy shrugged. "I must've listened to the magic without realizing it. Let's hope everything else makes sense too."

Best Daddy ever.

"It will." I knew it.

But I was patient.

I even let Daddy set the box down on the bed and didn't tackle Daddy or the box.

Even Kenzie would've said I was amazing.

Daddy's laugh made me jump and I looked up to see him wearing a silly grin. "You're so cute. Alright, you can open the box."

Yay.

"I was patient." Kenzie said sometimes Daddies needed help remembering that, so I made sure he knew it before I opened my special box. "Oh, Daddy."

There were lots of toys.

Little ones.

Big ones.

Funny ones.

Special ones.

"You got me seeds, Daddy!" Picking up the pretty package that had brightly colored flowers all over it, I held it up so he could see. "You got me seeds. I'm going to have Daddy flowers."

No one else got Daddy flowers.

Not even Kenzie got seeds.

Not even Lorne got seeds.

Not even Stefan got seeds.

I was so special.

Daddy tipped over and crashed into the bed. "I thought I was being so silly when I bought those. Mates don't buy seeds. I thought maybe you would be a dragon and seeds would be your hoard but that just made me worry more."

"'Cause you might buy the wrong ones." Hoards were weird sometimes. "But you bought great ones, Daddy."

He stopped being silly and sat up, smiling and proud of himself. "Thank you."

Daddy was so excited he leaned over the box and rubbed my nose with his. "I'm glad you like them."

"They're amazing." I was going to have special flowers that Daddy gave me. "I'm going to grow special mate flowers. No one else has that."

Daddy laughed as I gave him a big squishing hug. "Yes, no one else will have special mate flowers."

Because I was special to my mate.

Kissing my head as I sat back, Daddy looked down at my seeds. "You'll have to tell me what we should do with them. I don't have a green thumb but I'm a good helper."

"You pick good presents, Daddy. That's better than growing plants because I can do that but I can't buy me surprises." That was one of the worst things about being a little without a Daddy. I had to buy my own surprises.

"I'm very glad you like them." Giving me another cheek kiss, Daddy gestured toward the box. "What else do you like?"

"Everything." My answer made Daddy laugh but I knew he wanted more words about his special presents, so I looked at every one of them.

They were wonderful, but I didn't know where to start.

Hmm.

"Don't make me wait." Daddy groaned and tipped over again as I giggled. "You're torturing me for being grumpy when I went into the restaurant."

Well, Daddy had been grumpy.

"The shovel, Daddy." Yes, that was a good place to start because it was our beginning, so I held up the key chain. "You bought this one at the beach, didn't you?"

He was sneaky.

Some of my presents were from before we'd zapped him.

Laughing, Daddy looked sheepish. "Yes. You got me. I bought that one for you when I was at the beach."

Daddy reached out and played with the little shovel and bucket set that would hold my keys. "I saw this and I knew my boy needed it. I just didn't know when I would find you, so I've been carrying it around with me."

Daddy was so cute…and so magical.

"Do you know why you bought it, Daddy?" I knew but I had to make him wait. "It's silly."

Frowning and trying to look serious, he tilted his head. "Hmm, what do you know that I don't?"

Lots.

Giggling, I wiggled my new shovel and bucket. "I lost mine. They got eaten by a big wave right before we were coming home, so I didn't have time to buy a new one. You bought me my new one."

They were just tiny.

Daddy's eyes got wide before he gave a big, big laugh. "Really?"

Nodding, I stretched out over the box and gave him a big hug. I kind of tipped us over, though, and crashed into Daddy. "Oops."

He laughed and didn't get mad. I just got a big, big hug and he held me tight. "The magic knew my mate needed new sand toys."

"It did." Kissing his cheek made him laugh again. "And when you take me back to the beach so we can do it together, then you can buy me a big one."

Daddy tried to look serious but he didn't do it very good. "When I take you back, huh?"

Nodding, I made sure to think like Lorne. "Yes, because you missed me the first time. It's not my fault you were late. So you have to take me again."

More frowny giggles.

Yep, I was going to the beach with Daddy.

"Where else did you miss me? I like trips." We had to write down everywhere we were going to go. "If we have a house to take with us, does that mean I get to bring toys when we go places?"

"Yes." Daddy raised his head and rubbed our noses again. "And when you're ready to tell me what else you need, like maybe bottles or binkies, then we can pack those too."

Daddy was sneaky.

I opened my mouth before I remembered I wasn't going to talk about that yet. Then I closed it and pouted as I looked at him serious. "Don't be sneaky."

He rolled his eyes and flopped his arms to the side. "I'm not promising that."

Oh, Daddy was naughty.

I was going to have to tell on him.

"I'm having a happy time with my Daddy and I'll worry later." He should've known that. "Don't be sneaky and make me worry now."

Daddy looked at me all thinky. "Still not promising that, but how about I tell you a story?"

Hmm.

"You're still being sneaky. You just know I like stories." I pointed to my box that had somehow gotten to the floor. "You bought me books, Daddy."

He shrugged. "Not my fault. It's the magic."

Magic was sneaky too.

"Come here." Daddy was so strong he rolled me off and even pulled me onto his lap when he sat up. "That's much better."

Was it?

"I'm going to squish you, Daddy." Trying to wiggle off him didn't work 'cause he made me stuck. "Big boys sit beside Daddies. I know that."

Or Daddies got squished.

Daddy snorted. "Bullshit. I'm a dragon, baby boy."

Hmm.

"Does that change Daddy rules?" No one had told me that.

"Probably." Daddy frowned then kissed my cheek. "I don't know. We'll figure that out later, though. Right now, you're going to hear a story."

Ugh.

Sneaky Daddy.

"You distracted me." I knew I was right when he smiled and shrugged. "Naughty Daddy."

That just made him smile bigger, so he knew he'd been naughty and liked it. He was like Lorne. I was going to have to be careful with him too.

"I have a younger brother." His story didn't start like I'd expected, so I had to listen. "He's four years younger than me, and when he was in high school, he met his mate. It took them a while to figure out they were mates and not just attracted to each other, but then they bonded. And then they started being weird."

Ugh. High school mates always drove teachers nuts.

"Why were they weird?" Since I wasn't going anywhere, it seemed like the right question to ask so he could keep telling his story. "Did they get in trouble?"

"No." Daddy wiggled me around on his lap so my head was on his shoulder. "But they started avoiding each other."

"That's not good. Mates don't do that." I'd watched enough of them over the years to know what mates did.

"That's right." Making a soft thinking sound, Daddy kissed my head. "But sometimes we forget that mates are always right for each other. They were both worried because as they started bonding physically, they started thinking about things they thought the other wouldn't like."

"Oh." That would be hard. "Was it weird like toes? That's hard to understand."

Daddy's body jerked but he shook his head. "No, not toes. Erin wanted to call Jeff Daddy and explore things that were age play related but she didn't understand how to explain it and he was worried that what he wanted would scare her."

"If it wasn't feet, what was scary?" Someone should've told him mates were always special together.

"He wanted to put her in a diaper and he thought about spanking her." Daddy paused as I shrugged. That wasn't weird and Daddy knew it because he shrugged. "I know. It's very reasonable for two people who are Daddy and baby girl, and Doms like seeing pink bottoms. It's just a thing."

"They do." I waved my hand around, trying to find the words. "It's important."

"It is." Daddy kissed my head and gave me another hug before he started rubbing my back. "But our parents are really vanilla and so he didn't think he had anyone to talk to."

"But you, Daddy. He could talk to you." Petting Daddy's chest, I poked at him. "You're the big brother Daddy, so you should've helped."

"I did." Chuckling, Daddy tickled my sides just enough to make me laugh and then he hugged me tight. "I finally sat him down and talked to him about what was going on because they just weren't acting right. He explained what the problem was and then I explained what you already know—spankings are just a thing. I also told him about being a Daddy."

"That's good." Relaxing back into him, I smiled. "I bet he was squirmy."

Daddy laughed. "Yes, we were both squirmy, but we got over it because he loves Erin a lot and I love both of them a lot."

"'Cause you're a good Daddy." He was. He'd already made me soup and he got good presents. "And now you're my Daddy."

"That's right." Daddy gave me more good snuggles and leaned his head around to kiss my cheek. "And it also means that I've been around a troublemaking little for a long time. And it means that I've seen her running around with her diaper under her clothes. And it means that nothing shocks me because I've had to talk about diaper care with a girl."

Giggling because he was sooo funny and sooo silly, I nodded. "They're kind of scary. Kenzie's mom looks so nice and then she goes crazy. But his dad likes it. They're weird even for dragons."

Daddy shook but he didn't laugh out loud. "Thank you for warning me."

"You're welcome, Daddy." Lifting my head, I kissed his cheek. "I don't want you to be surprised."

Rubbing his nose against mine, he smiled. "It will take a lot to surprise me."

Ugh.

Daddy was sneaky.