“You didn’t do anything wrong, Cosy. It’s me. I don’t want to pressure you because everything is your choice and I know you just got out of a very bad situation. I don’t want you to feel like you need to decide anything right now. And you can change your mind whenever you want. It’s just that… Well, from the second I saw you I felt something for you, like a connection I couldn’t totally explain. And when Ian brought you here, I…”
He shook his head and blew a breath between his lips.
“Please don’t be afraid because I swear on my life I’ll respect any choice you make, but I already think of you as my little girl. That’s not fair to you. Maybe you’re not a little at all. And while it’s my responsibility to care for you, that doesn’t make you mine. That’s all I was trying to keep myself from saying—that we’ve never had a little girl of our very own before.”
“Oh,” she said again, fingering the hair on his chest while she leaned her head on his shoulder and enjoyed being held.
“What’s going on in that big brain of yours, teapot?”
“Why do you call me teapot?” she asked, because it was easier than all the other questions that were bubbling in her head.
Cosima could feel the rumble of his laugh in his chest. When Master laughed, it had sounded cruel, but when Hudson did, she liked it. Maybe he thought she was funny, even, and she’d like that. Like being able to make him laugh.
“Because you’re so tiny you could practically fit in a teapot,” he told her as he tapped her on the nose. “I have nicknames for a lot of people. But if you don’t like it, I won’t call you that anymore.”
“I like it. I like it when you call me babygirl too. And when Ian calls me sweetheart or his good girl.”
“You are a good girl.”
Heat flared in her cheeks. She wasn’t sure she believed that, but she also wasn’t going to try to convince him otherwise. It felt too good.
“Could I try it? Being your little girl, I mean. I think I might like that.”
“I would love that,” he told her, and planted a kiss on the top of her head. “A lot of littles call their caregivers Mommy or Daddy. Would you like to call me Daddy?”
There was a bloom of warmth in her tummy and she kicked her feet idly. Her whole body was suffused with warmth and—was that happiness? She might be happy.
“I…I think so. Here, let me try it.”
Cosima sat up, Hudson’s arm behind her back supporting her efforts so she could put her hand on his cheek. Yes, he was very big and she was very small, and his eyes had nothing but kindness in them.
“Hi, Daddy,” she said, her heart all aflutter and her face feeling like it was on fire. Despite being so nervous she might not be able to breathe, she really did like how it sounded, how it felt.Daddy. Her daddy.
“Hi, teapot,” he responded, a huge grin on his face, looking at her like he was so proud and happy. She wasn’t sure why, but she liked it anyway. “So, what’s the verdict? Feel good?”
“Yes, Daddy. It feels really good. I like it a lot.”