"God. I feel horrible." I groaned, shifting how I was sat on the sofa. Imogen flopped beside me and I leaned into her side.
"Well, that's what happens when you breathe in smoke." She replied, pressing a kiss to the top of my head.
"Papa, can you play with me?" Abby skipped into the room, a doll in each hand.
"Not today, baby girl. I'm still feeling a bit sick after yesterday."
"Oh." Abby looked at her dolls and then jumped onto Imogen's lap. "You play with me, mummy?" With an exaggerated groan, Imogen stood up and lifted our daughter into the air.
"Alright, little monster. What are we playing?" Giggling, Abby hugged her as she brought her back down to sit on her hip.
"Can we play dress up? I wanna be a pirate!"
"Uh, sure." I had to laugh at the expression on Imogen's face but she carried her into her room anyway and I listened as they rummaged around for a little bit. There were lots of giggles from Abby and not-so-quiet mumbles from Imogen until eventually, they stormed back into the living room and I burst out laughing.
"Papa! I'm a pirate." Abby announced, bounding over and waving a plastic hook in my face.
"I can see that. And what's mummy?" My eyes were trained on my wife as Abby giggled again.
"Mummy's a fairy princess. And I'm going to make her give me all her treasure. 'Cause that's what pirates like!" Imogen had somehow managed to put on one of Abby's pink sparkly tutu skirts and had a plastic tiara atop her head. In her hand was a sparkly pink wand and she had white angel wings on her back.
"Well then. You'd better get to it. Otherwise she might run away." I warned Abby and her eyes went wide. Imogen seemed to take my hint and pretended to run away, not quite fast enough that Abby wouldn't be able to catch up. When she did catch her, she fell to the floor and let Abby take the tiara off her head, holding it in the air gleefully.
"I catched you mummy! I got the treasure!" She cheered, doing a little war dance around her. She pretended to be upset and sniffed a little.
"But Miss Pirate, that's my tiara."
"Argh! But pirates love treasure. And this is the bestest treasure in the land." Abby cried with a little giggle.
"What about my wand? It has magical powers. Surely that's the best treasure in the land?"
"Oh! Well, yes it is. I'll take that too." She snatched the wand from Imogen's hand and ran over to me. "Here papa. It's the special treasure that I stole from daddy." She whispered in my ear, depositing the tiara and wand in my lap.
"Thank you, sweetie."
"Now I have to tie up mummy so she doesn't get away." I widened my eyes as she pulled a blue ribbon from her pocket and proceeded to tie it in a knot around Imogen's hands. I had no idea where she'd learned that.
"Why are you tying me up? I thought you just wanted the treasure?" Imogen asked her and she looked up at her with a cheeky smile.
"'Cause pirates always kidnap the princesses, mummy. Don't you know that?"
"Oh. Right. Well, what now?" Abby tilted her head to the side to think for a moment.
"Now I make you scrub the decks!"
"But you tied my hands."
"Oh. Well, I make you stay there. I'm going to do pirate things in my pirate ship." With that she spun on her heel and disappeared into her room, slamming the door behind her. Imogen looked over at me with a grin.
"Well, that lasted a long time."
"You make a fabulous fairy princess, I must say." I told her through my laughter. She stuck his tongue out at me and got up, the blue ribbon coming undone as soon as she moved since Abby hadn't actually tied it properly.
"It's just what I'd dreamed of being when I grew up."
"Oh me too." I agreed, sarcasm dripping from my voice. She laughed and came to sit beside me.
"You feeling any better?"
"I am, yeah. I think just taking it easy has been good. I'll be right for work tomorrow."
"Good. You have no idea what it was like to watch you just run across the road like that yesterday. I'm pretty sure my heart stopped."
"I was never going to go into the house." I assured her, laying my legs over her lap and letting her tuck me in under her arm. "I love you too much to make you lose me like that."
"I love you too, Nick. "
"Plus, you'd never be able to survive without me." I teased and she pulled back to look at me.
"What? I would so."
"Nuh-uh. You rely on me too much." I was laughing now. "Remember how bad you were at cooking when we first started dating?"
"Oh, come on. I wasn't that bad."
"You burned the chicken!" I cried, my laughter shaking my whole body and hers, although she was starting to laugh now, too, at the memory.
"Only 'cause you distracted me. If you hadn't been so intent on kissing me, it wouldn't have burned."
"Hey, I was young and smitten. I didn't know then that I'd have a million more chances to kiss you. I was just making the most of the moment."
"Only a million?"
"Huh?"
"You only got a million chances to kiss me after that night? When does that million run out? 'Cause maybe we'll have to space them out."
"Oh, ha-ha. You know what I mean." I pressed my lips to hers gently, feeling her kiss me back.
"Mummy!" The sound of our daughter back in the living room made us break apart. "How did you get free?"
"Uh, a brave knight rescued me." Imogen told her after a moment, gently squeezing my leg where it still lay over hers. I smiled and leaned my head on her shoulder.
"Can we watch a movie, mummy?"
"Sure. You pick one and I'll go make some popcorn, how does that sound?"
"Yeah!" Abby cheered and went over to the cupboard where we kept all the movies she could watch. Imogen kissed my cheek and pushed my legs off hers. I whined and pouted at her.
"I was comfortable."
"I'll be back soon. Promise."
