Milestones - Benedict Cumberbatch (Daddybatch Fluff!)

News over breakfast -- 2 years

I have a few moments spare to breathe/catch up and you may be pleased to know that Gingerbread may finally be co-operating again. In the meantime I'd all but forgotten about these.

Warning: this one leans slightly more toward the smutty side than previous milestones ;)

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2 years

The early morning sunlight danced across Milly's closed eyelids, and she could feel the warmth of it on her skin as a chink of light streamed through the gap in the window blind. She burrowed into her pillow and hummed a contented sigh, basking in the delicious thought that since neither her daughter nor the alarm clock had woken her, she could simply roll over and go back to sleep. She stretched an arm out lazily, expecting to make contact with whichever part of her naked husband was nearest, but instead met only a ruffle of bed sheets.

Her consciousness willed her to open her eyes and check the time, but sleep was really trying it's best to pull her back under. She starfished out to take advantage of the whole bed, enjoying the sensation of cool cotton against her warm body. She'd been so exhausted lately, unsurprisingly, but the idea of a day of chaos with offspring number one wasn't as compelling as it ought to be.

Milly's eyes flew open, startled that she would think such a thing. She blinked in bright light, realising that it was later in the day than she'd imagined. Glancing at the clock beside the bed, her usual wake up time had been and gone, as had Benedict. A wave of panic gripped her.

"Ben?" her voice was a weak croak as she untangled the sheets from around her legs.

A clatter echoed outside the closed bedroom door and she listened harder. There were sounds coming from inside their home, and as the sleep inertia cleared it dawned on her that there was no way Benedict would have left her asleep if Eloise was up.

But Ellie never slept this late - her usual style was to clamber into her parents' bed at the crack of dawn. A muffled yelp of excitement confirmed that their little girl was indeed awake, somewhere in the flat. Milly cocked her head curiously; she could also hear Ben's voice, indistinct, but immediately obvious. He was supposed to be out at a meeting with some theatre executives this morning.

She gathered her dressing gown from where it had been tossed on the floor the previous night, unearthing several of Ellie's toys in the process. Evidence of the little girl's complete occupation of their lives was everywhere; Milly knew that neither she nor Ben would have it any other way. She padded from the bedroom toward the source of the noise. The quiet clang of activity rang down the hallway from the kitchen but the voices were still muffled.

"No, no, Ellie sweetheart put that one down, we're not ready for it yet," Ben's deep whisper was finally loud enough to understand.

"OOPS!" Ellie's loud exclamation was joined by a shrill giggle, and an orange rolled at speed across the kitchen tiles and onto the smooth wooden flooring of the hallway, coming to a stop by Milly's feet. She grinned and instinctively held her breath as she took a step backward around the corner into Ellie's bedroom to conceal herself. She heard the patter of her daughter's feet as she chased the rogue fruit and then spied a small hand retrieve the orange before returning to the kitchen.

"Inside voices, remember? We don't want to wake Mummy up until we're finished," Ben explained. Milly crept back to her vantage point at the edge of the door arch, this time able to see a bit more of the action whilst also remaining out of sight herself.

Ben was standing at the island in the middle of the kitchen, juicing oranges by hand with the old glass juicer that had once belonged to Milly's mother. Eloise was stood on a chair beside him, thrilled to be the custodian of the oranges, handing them one by one to her father.