MANIACAL | TRACOB

Five.

Once Troye was done eating his birthday cake, Jacob handed him a wrapped up box. Troye's blue eyes lit up and he said a quick thank you, taking the box from Jacob's hands and setting it in his lap. He started to pull at the paper, tearing it back and pulling the lid off of the box. He reached his little hands in and grabbed onto some soft fabric, pulling it up and out of the box. "Pretty," he said, admiring the yellow fabric of what appeared to be a sun dress. "I've never wore a dress before."

"Thought you would look pretty in it."

Troye nodded, laying it out in front of himself to look at it. It was long enough that it would land just above his knee, with thin straps to hold it up. It drew in slightly in the middle and flowed nicely beneath that. The fabric was a sunshine yellow with little red lady bugs all over it, and Troye loved it so much. He liked ladybugs, they were so nice. "I love it, thank you." He crawled forward and wrapped his arms around Jacob in a big hug, basically crawling into his lap. Even after he had given Jacob a hug, he didn't leave. He just leaned forward and cuddled into Jacob's shirt, his eyes shutting. "'m sleepy," he mumbled. He giggled when Jacob tickled at his sides, lazily trying to push the man's hands away.

"Do you want to try your new dress on before you sleep? Or do you want to wait until tomorrow?" Jacob asked.

"I think I wanna wait 'til tomorrow. Jus' tired."

"That's okay," Jacob said. He kissed Troye's curls and pushed him back so that he was sitting on the bed. Jacob got up and walked to the bag that was sat near the door, pulling out a pair of Troye's pyjamas from home. "Let's get you changed, then you can go right to sleep. Come here." Troye yawned and did what he was told, coming over to stand in front of Jacob. He looked up and blushed when Jacob started to pull his shirt off. He still was not used to anyone seeing him without his clothes on, but Jacob hushed him and helped him get the new outfit on. The pyjamas he had chose were a tiny purple set, made up of shorts and a tank top. Troye liked this pair a lot, the shorts had little white frills on the bum and they were just super cute. "You can't really brush your teeth tonight because of the water situation, but we will get that sorted out tomorrow. Do you need anything else?"

The little one shook his head, wandering him to the bed when Jacob gestured for him to. He put the dress back into the box and set in on the floor before pulling the covers back and climbing in. "You gonna sleep with me?" Troye asked innocently, batting his eyelashes.

Jacob shook his head no. "No, I have to go do something so you just have to go to sleep. You'll be okay though, you have Strawberry and you're safer here than anywhere else."

There was a little whimper from Troye as he sat up and made grabby hands for Jacob. "Please don't leave!"

"Troye, settle down now," Jacob said, his voice stern. "You will be fine. I can't just stay here and hold your hand all the time, you need to be big and get over it."

Jacob's little speech did nothing to comfort Troye, but it did make him shut up. He nodded slightly and laid back down, pulling the blankets up high. "Jakey?"

"What?"

"I need my teddy."

"Your what?"

"My teddy! I can't sleep without him."

Jacob sighed, running his hand over his face. Of course he knew about Troye's stuffed bear, he had been carrying it around for as long as Jacob could remember. Well, he had stopped more recently as he was older, but Jacob knew that he still had it at bedtime. "I can't get him. But I can get you a new one tomorrow. Just go to sleep, you'll be fine for one night."

"No I won't," Troye whined back. "I'll have bad dreams and I don't like bad dreams."

"Well what do you want me to do?"