OTP Challenge: Day 10 - With Animal Ears

Rosa covered her ears with her hands as soon as Daniel let out another deafening cry that could have put the mythological Banshee to shame. Unfortunately Adrian didn’t have the luxury to muffle out the sounds, wincing slightly as he caught an earful of the shrill scream while he held his six month old nephew close in his arms.

“God, for someone so small he has a freaking set of lungs on him,” Adrian remarked for the third time within fifteen minutes or so. Much to the British woman’s surprise, he remained taken back by how exactly loud a baby can be at times.

Then again, what did they know about children when they were both in their early twenties and still attending university? Barely anything considering the fact the couple had been dating for an entire year.

“I’d say we call either call Alex or Sean,” she suggested, trying her best to help out. Adrian tried to discreetly hide the fact his jaw was clenching by bringing his mouth closer to the baby’s head and kissing the soft tuft of dark hair reassuringly. When he didn’t bother to respond, Rosa heaved a sigh and sat herself down next to her boyfriend on the settee, a serious expression on her face. Maybe he could hear her out if she reasoned with him logically.

“Look, Adrian, he’s been crying for the past forty five minutes or so and we’ve tried our best,” she explained gently to him. She learned long ago that if she shown patience then his stubbornness would eventually fade away and he’d forget about it. “We’ve tried picking him up and singing to him, but all that did was made things worse. And he only had a few mouthfuls of his milk so he wasn’t all that hungry. I think if he misses his mum and dad that much then we should phone them – they’ll understand.”

“Babe, I doubt Dan misses them,” he said, simply dismissing her initial idea. She rolled her eyes to the ceiling in response to his statement. “They’ve only been gone for almost two hours. He was perfectly content sleeping when they left. It’s not like Daniel has a high temperature or something like that.”

The redhead pinched the bridge of her nose while briefly closing her eyes in the process. “Well, excuse me for trying to help out.”

“Oh, come on. Don’t be like that, Rosa. It’s not like I don’t appreciate your ideas.”

“You have a funny way of showing it, Adrian. That’s all I can say on the matter.”

Just then there was total silence. The wailing seemed to have died down for some strange reason, thus leading Adrian to believe he had gone deaf.

He held the infant out with outstretched arms, the corners of his mouth lifting up in a wide smile that reached his eyes. The little guy seemed to have quietened down on his own, his eyes curiously gazing at his uncle, his tiny cherub face calm and relaxed. Feeling ever so proud of himself despite the fact only God knows what he actually done to have pacified Daniel, he couldn’t help but to chuckle smugly. Rosa arched an eyebrow at him, obviously impressed.

“Finally, peace and quiet.” She breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Looks like we’re able to watch a film together after all,” he commented. He turned his attention to the baby. “Hey, Danny boy. How about Uncle Adrian tuck you up in bed, huh? Would you like-?”

A small white river of sick immediately left Daniel’s mouth at that moment, silencing Adrian’s words. The American’s eyes widened when the fluid dribbled down his chin, threatening to spill onto Adrian’s most favourite Grifball T shirt. Rosa must have seen the situation for she quickly leapt to her feet and dashed across the room in search of some tissues. Once she found them she handed a few to Adrian who uttered his thanks before wiping the sick from the child’s jawline and mouth.

“Hold on…” she trailed off, returning to the table to retrieve something. Walking back to Adrian, she discreetly hid the mysterious items behind her back in order to maintain an element of surprise. “Put this on, darling.”

Much to Adrian’s chagrin it turned out she had two sets of black cat ears, each of them attached to an Alice band. For a split second he wondered why on earth Sean and his wife had these items in their house. Never could he imagine his brother wearing animal ears– in fact he kept that a total secret. Adrian made a mental note to himself that he was going to bring the subject up when they finally came home from their romantic night out together.

“Quickly, before he starts crying again!”

An idea formed in his mind, quite a genius one at that might he add. He smirked, staring directly at her, announcing, “Not unless you do it as well.”

“Fine.”

He reached out and took one before securing it on top of his head. True to her word, she wore hers, the epitome of cuteness – all she needed now was a cat tail and it would be even more perfect. Once Rosa took her place beside Adrian, Daniel seemed fascinated with the slight change in both their appearances. The infant let out a squeal of excitement as soon as Rosa provided a spot of entertainment by pretending to be a cat, meowing gently and curling her hand outwards like she had claws. Delighted, Daniel started chortling, babbling in his own secret baby language.

Caught up in the spirit of the moment, Adrian couldn’t help but to join in with the fun. “What does the cat say? Meow!”

He could have sworn he saw a glimpse of a smile on Daniel’s face, although for all he knew it might have been gas. Adrian leaned in closer to her.

“Good thinking.”

As they shared a kiss he could feel Daniel tugging on his cat ears.