Closer

106.

The day it was time to head home was a wild day. Neither of them felt ready at all, which was proven before they had even gotten into the car in the parking garage.

"You sure that's how it's fastened?" Eddy asked, holding Elise a thankfully sleeping Elise while Brett did his best to figure out how the car seat was supposed to be secured with the seat belt.

"I'm literally just trying to do what the imstructions say, but it's confusing because the seat belt is coming from the other side, and now I don't know what I did but the seatbelt is stuck," Brett explained while he attempted to get the seat belt unstuck. Why did these things have to be so complicated?

"Want me to take a look?" Eddy suggested, but that was apparently not the right thing to say as Brett just huffed at him. He shrugged it off and walked back and forth a bit to make sure Elise stayed asleep.

Brett felt rather useless. He knew it was the lack of proper sleep the past few days that made him emotional, but honestly, how good of a father would he be if he couldn't even figure out how a stupid car seat worked?

"Did you check if it will work with the seat belt is coming from that side, though?" Eddy asked after a while, and Brett took another look at the instructions. Eddy was right, of course.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," Brett mumbled to himself as he tore the seat free from the seatbelt and carried it around the car to put it in the other seat where the seat belt would be the right way. Eddy felt uneasy at how stressed Brett seemed, but stayed quiet as Brett finally got the car seat in place.

"There. Turns out I'm just an idiot," Brett sighed as he took a step back to let Eddy put Elise in the car seat.

"You're not an idiot, sweetie, just need to read the key signature before sight reading," Eddy said before kissing his cheek and then carefully placing Elise in the car seat, making sure she was properly strapped in.

"Very funny," Brett sighed, running a hand through his hair. "You driving or me?"

Eddy straightened up and turned to Brett when he was certain she was safe.
"Come here for a bit," he sighed and pulled Brett into a tight hug, kissing the top of his head as he did. Brett relaxed in his arms. "You're doing alright so far. Please don't be so hard on yourself."

"I'm sorry, I just... I'm so tired already and we haven't even started properly yet," Brett sighed, closing his eyes. "I feel like I need forty naps."

"You can take a nap when we get home, if you want," mumbled against his hair. "While I prepare for the grandparent party."

"Why did we say they could come today again?" Brett sighed, enjoying the feeling of Eddy's hand carefully stroking his back. Eddy shrugged.

"They said they could come, we didn't say anything," Eddy snorted, kissing Brett's forehead before pulling away. "I'll drive and you take a nap or something, okay?"

"Okay," Brett sighed, rubbing his eyes. "Thank you."