Chapter 36: Sir Daddy
"It's just that you were holding my hands a little too tight, and I blurted out something because of the pain." She ignored that warm sensation she was feeling when she heard his words and made an excuse for calling her son by his actual name, just in case she lost the bet because of that, even though her hand didn't really hurt.
"Ah, sorry about that, Abi. I didn't realise that I was hurting you." Her son quickly said and let go of his grip on her hand.
But he didn't simply release her hand, and held her hand up and gently caressed her wrists, like he was trying to comfort the place where he hurt her.
"Does it hurt here? Or does it hurt anywhere else?" Her son carefully inspected her hand to see where he hurt her, with a look of genuine concern on her face, and he looked really apologetic that he caused her supposed daughter to feel any pain.
The anxiety he had on his face and the way he was carefully caressing her hand, made his mother feel really good about herself, as it felt like she was getting cherished by someone that all girls loved.
It was the first time in a long while that someone had treated her like this, and she didn't want to end it immediately since she was thoroughly enjoying this princess treatment, so she decided to play along with this father-daughter roleplay, while temporarily ignoring the repercussions of losing the bet.
"Yes, daddy~ It hurts over here." She pointed at a place on her wrist and acted like a spoiled daughter, who would get aggrieved over the smallest thing to get her father's attention.
"Right here?" Her son gently rubbed the place where she showed, and looked like he was trying to find where she got hurt. "But Abi, it doesn't really look like you got hurt here."
"Then are you calling Abi a liar, daddy?" She pouted like a little girl and acted like a victim, when she was in fact lying to get her father to look at her.
"What do I have to do?" He gently held her hand and looked like he would do anything for his daughter, which made her feel giddy inside.
"Daddy doesn't have to do much." She decided to reveal her intentions. "You just have to kiss the place on my hand that hurts, and I'm sure the pain will go away."
"...I-I have to kiss your hand to relieve you of the pain you're feeling?" He had a peculiar look on his face when he heard this unscientific request from her daughter, that made no sense.
"Why daddy? Do you not want to kiss your daughter's hand?" She looked at him harshly, like she was desatisfied with how he was questioning his beloved daughter's words.
"No, it's nothing like that, Abi." He quickly denied it before his daughter got any more mad. "It's just that I don't see how kissing your hand is going to make you feel any better."
"Come on, daddy! Don't you know something as simple as this!" She acted like healing wounds by kissing someone was common sense. "I mean, hasn't your mother...No, I mean, grandma kissed you on your booboos when you got hurt when you were younger, to make you feel better."
She didn't know how to feel about calling herself a grandma, since she was his actual mother.
She thought that her son would immediately comply with her words like before and give her a kiss on the hand like she asked for, but instead he gave a wry smile and gave a lonely look as if he were thinking about something sad that happened in the past. His eyes lost their usual brighteness they had, and were replaced with a bleak light that gave him a desolate image.
"My mother, huh...I guess she has done something like this before...I must have completely forgotten it, since it's been so long since I've seen her." He said, with a smile that looked forced, and looked like he was looking into the distant past that he wasn't so fond off.