Chapter 152: You worked really hard
"Today, I want Daddy to bathe me."
The words from her mouth shocked both of them. All of a sudden she wanted her daddy to bathe her. It wasn’t a big deal but... Noah had never bathed a child before so he was nervous. He was a wreck.
He wanted to reject it and opt to just watch this time. He looked at Michael, giving him a signal to stop his daughter but Michael laughed first before saying,
"Then, shall we show your Daddy how it’s done first?" Michael suggested. "He’ll also help to pour the water so it should be fine, right?"
"Hm, I guess that’s fine." Olivia said.
Michael turned to Noah and then winked. Seeing this, Noah’s heart thumped once more.
The little gestures Michael had been displaying were getting his heart thumping and racing, as if he were a high school boy in love.
This feeling... It was like falling in love all over again.
It was sweet. It was peaceful. It was... His.
Michael took off Olivia’s clothes and then dropped her into the empty bathtub.
"Olivia likes her water very lukewarm." Michael explained to Noah as he turned on the shower head in his hand.
He sprayed Noah’s hand so he could get a feel of it and Noah nodded, jotting this down in his brain.
"Bathing a child is no different from bathing yourself. The only thing you have to take note of, however, is the child’s head and face. You need to be careful not to get soap in her eyes when you wash her hair and when rinsing down, make sure to swipe the water down from her face right away so she doesn’t sniff it in."
Noah kept nodding, taking note of these things in his head.
It seemed like a simple explanation but it felt complex at the same time.
He watched Michael scrub Olivia’s hair and then began rinsing.
He watched keenly and was fascinated, thinking how much work Michael had put in all this time.
"You worked really hard." He suddenly said, and Michael paused, turning to him with a shocked look in his eyes, but this caused him to smile.
It felt nice.
"Yeah, and you’ll have to work even harder from here on out." Michael teased.
"Yes, I plan to."
After Olivia’s bath, Noah was given the task of cleaning her hair with a towel, and afterwards, he brushed her hair.
He seemed better at this than anyone else.
Maybe it was because he did this for Michael a lot and so he knew just how to take care of her hair.
Olivia felt happy. Her daddy was brushing her hair.
She always wanted this.
Michael went out to inform Alyssa and Roland about their plans so it was just the two of them.
Olivia stared at Noah through the mirror for a while, and Noah began to feel nervous. He could tell she wanted to say something but she was keeping it to herself.
Maybe she just wanted to be asked.
"Is there something you want?" He asked, though he guessed that there would be a dozen things his little girl would want to ask her father.
But surprisingly, her answer was,
"No, daddy." She said, "I don’t want anything. I just want to look at Daddy so that Daddy doesn’t suddenly disappear."
Hearing this, his heart felt crushed but it gave him even more determination to prove to his daughter that he would not suddenly leave them again.
"I’m sorry I took so long, Olivia." Noah said as he stopped brushing, placing his hand on her shoulders. "I’m sorry that I wasn’t here from the start but... I’ll definitely make it up to you."
"If Papa can keep smiling like this then you’re already doing a lot, daddy." She said and shut her eyes, smiling widely. "It makes me happy."
Noah hugged her from behind and then kissed the top of her head.
"I didn’t expect you to forgive me for taking so long to come back to you. This is the first day we’re meeting and yet you’re not mad. You aren’t blaming me for anything at all. I... I don’t know how to feel about this. I feel I’ve been very incompetent as a father and I put a lot of burden on you since you were born."
"What burden? Ha, daddy, I know what you’ve been doing this whole time, so I know you’ve been in far more of a burden than anyone else." Noah paused. She knew what? "Papa kept saying you were working and that there were so many bad people who wanted to come after us. If you came over before dealing with them, they would hurt us and so you had to stay away even if you didn’t want to."
Her shoulders suddenly dropped.
"I did miss you. I wanted to see you. I didn’t just want to stare at a picture or a video of you. I wanted Daddy to come make me and Papa happy but I’m not such a spoilt child. Aunty and uncle say I’m very mature and I tend to keep it that way. I don’t want to give Papa a hard time so I decided to be very understanding. So long as we won’t get hurt if Daddy keeps working, then there’s no danger in waiting."
Noah was stunned.
He didn’t know how his daughter, who was yet to clock 5, was able to speak in such a sophisticated way. She had so much understanding for her age.
So much understanding that he was suddenly seeing himself in her. That level of intelligence... Ah, she took this side of her from him.
How he wished she were a little clueless and not overly smart like he was at this age. She would’ve lived a better childhood.
But this wouldn’t stop her from living a better and cheerful childhood.
He hugged her once again and said,
"It’s all over now, Olivia my dear. It’s over. You and your papa won’t be sad anymore."
Michael was at the door, watching this and then he smiled.
They were bonding.
He liked that.
They all got ready and headed for the restaurant.
Noah didn’t have anything else to wear since he didn’t carry anything other than what he was currently wearing, so he planned to buy some clothes before they headed there, but then Michael took out something Noah did not expect.
It was the suit he had worn on the day of Michael’s parents’ funeral.
It had been carefully tucked away and though Michael didn’t know when Noah would get to use it again, he regularly ironed it.
Now, it finally had its time to shine.
"Ah, it fits well." Noah said, standing in front of the mirror and then at his reflection with his hair falling. "It looks like nothing changed."
Michael wrapped his arms around his from behind, pressing his head on his back, and muttered.
"Yeah, you look exactly the same, Noah." He said.
Noah held his hand and then turned around, hugging him properly.
"Still, we can’t ignore all the changes even if we want to." He whispered and then smiled. "Let’s make the best of these changes."
Michael stared at his sincere eyes and then smiled, going on his tip-toe to kiss his lips.
Noah kissed back, his fingers shoving through the hair at the back of Michael’s head.
What should have been a simple and ought kiss got heated in seconds, with both trying to swallow the other whole.
But then, the light patter of footsteps approaching the room caused them to separate right away, and Olivia walked in, only to find them panting.
"What’s wrong, Papa?" She asked and then turned to Noah, who had the same expression. "And daddy too?"
"It’s nothing, sweetheart." Michael said, going over to lift his baby girl. "You could say we were just exercising."
"Exercising?" She asked, her eyebrow tilted up, and he nodded, but of course, she couldn’t be easily fooled.
Her lips curled up into a knowing smile and she nodded.
"I understand, Papa, I understand." She said. "Then," she turned to Noah. "Daddy looks very good."
Noah laughed, shoving his fingers through his hair.
"It’s cause it’s the first outing with my baby so of course I need to look good." He said, going closer to take her from Michael. "And of course," he kissed Michael’s forehead. "The first outing of our family."
"Me too, me too." Olivia said, pointing at her forehead and Noah kissed her forehead, after pushing aside the fridges covering her forehead.
Noah had done a good job of packing her hair into two cute pig tails. It almost looked like he had been doing this for a while now.
It was probably because he watched a few videos that had to do with tying up a little girl’s hair. He watched those videos a few times so he would know what to do when it was time for him to do the same with his daughter.
He couldn’t afford to appear lacking in front of her.
"Then, shall we get going?" Noah asked as they walked out of the room to find Alyssa and Roland already dressed and ready to go.
