36

"NO!"

"Stop arguing and get off it please" Ianto repeated as Heath glared at him and instead of getting off the mat, he lay down and folded his little arms.

"Heath, I need to roll this so I can vacuum the room" Ianto explained as the little boy growled and rolled to his belly, pointing his bum into the air.

Ianto knew he should scold but it looked so cute so he leaned down and gently tapped his bum with the palm of his hand. Heath gasped with surprise and turned to look at him as the front door slammed and Jack called out he was home. Ianto watched the little boy's eyes narrow and then he threw his little head back and screamed a loud bloodcurdling sound of near death that had Jack racing in with wide eyes, frantically sweeping the child to safety and looking around for the source of danger.

"Ignore him, I just patted his bum" Ianto scolded as he rolled his eyes, "He is being a little horror!"

"You smacked him? You can't hit him he's a baby!" Jack was horrified, checking the child for loss of limb and Ianto folded his arms.

"Right if you can do it better, go for it!" Ianto growled, "I need a bubble bath!"

"what?" Jack squeaked with horror.

"I am taking a break, it's your turn to have the little darling" Ianto said sarcastically, "That mat needs to be rolled and put away as he is finished playing with the little cars before tea. As you know the routine as well as he does, after tea is quiet time so he will go to sleep."

"Right, right" Jack nodded and Ianto stomped off to the bathroom, done with being the wife for the day.

"Right-o sweetling bum" Jack crooned, "up with the pesky old mat."

"NO!" Heath went back to the Mat Attack Flop.

"Baby? That's not helping ya silly bum" Jack laughed as he tickled the wee guy and slid him off, starting to roll the mat as he went and Heath realised he was being thwarted so he changed tactic and simply waited for Jack to stand upright and then with a flick of his hand the mat unrolled again, the little boy triumphantly stomped back into the middle like a little beast, his eyes narrowed as he eyeballed his Dad.

"This is about where he smacked you, right?" Jack sighed, "I think I see the problem. You are being a little bugger."

Heath sat with a thud on his bum in the middle of the mat and eyed Jack again, challenging him.

"No, that's fine love" Jack smiled softly, "You need it, that's fine. Daddy understands. You want to keep playing."

Heath gleefully grabbed a little car and lay back down, running the car around the road printed on the mat.

"I'll just put the big car away, you don't need that one for watching Telly in after tea then" Jack sighed as he stomped over and lifted the red car up, Heath's eyes bugging out as he realised he was about to lose his Broom-Broom.

He took a deep breath and screamed with rage.

Ianto sat bolt upright and then struggled from the bath running with a towel to see if the little boy had lost a limb or poked an eye out only to find him having a massive tantrum on the mat that was STILL unrolled on the floor.

"He's fine" Jack said calmly, "Just realised I am confiscating his Broom-broom. Like I said, he doesn't need it if he's busy with that over there. He's a big boy now and can change the rules. He is playing with the mat and little cars for the rest of the night, he doesn't need any others."

Ianto gaped along with Heath as the car went away, the bean bag for bottle time and even the unicorn Uncle Owen gave him he liked to cuddle while snoozing. He looked to Taddy for help but Ianto had wandered back to the bathroom and his bubble bath.

What?

Heath stormed to the phone and started punching buttons, the voice answering one of confusion as Heath started roaring babble down it.

Ianto entered and snatched the phone from the angry baby, "Hello? How is this?"

"Er…this is Everest Henderson, ah…your little one seems quite agitated"

"I am so sorry" Ianto was so embarrassed, "His father and I are punishing him for having a bad mood, I had no idea he even knew how to work a phone. He's just a baby."

There was laughter and kind words spoken, before Ianto hung up and turned to glare at the little boy. Jack walked in and froze as he saw a Mexican standoff.

"Right" Ianto growled, "You think that was funny do you? What if you had called a police man? He might have come and arrested you for using the phone, Daddy for taking your car or me for not supervising you. Would you like that?"

Heath's eyes grew wide at the thought of one of them on trouble.

"What's going on?" Jack asked softly.

"Heath just phones a random stranger to complain about our treatment of him" Ianto said with a slump as he shrugged and dropped the phone on the table, "You know what? Maybe I'm not cut out for this. I must be a horrible Taddy if my little boy is acting like this."

Ianto walked sadly from the room and Jack watched a little boy's face fall as he felt Ianto's sadness through the bond.

"I think you hurt Taddy's feelings bud" Jack sighed.

Heath picked up his favourite little car and ran to the bedroom where Ianto was now laying on the bed staring at the ceiling.

"Sowwwwy" Heath placed the car by Ianto's glass of water and stepped back, "Love you Tadda."

Ianto let his head fall to one side and he raised an eyebrow.

"I love you too Heath and I wouldn't ever give you away, do you know that? Even when you are so horrid my heart hurts" Ianto whispered as he opened his arms and the little boy clambered into them for a hug, "You can hurt me over and over again, I might cry and feel bad but I will still love you and will always clutch you fiercely."

"Sowwwy" Heath repeated as he hugged Ianto's arms, "I hurt too."

"Anger is not a hurt" Jack explained as he sat on the bed, "Anger is making a hurt, not having one. You were angry that you had to put your toy away so you fought. There is nothing wrong with having an opinion and if you had asked for more mat time and no TV instead we would have said OK. You need to start communicating with us, not being angry when we don't know what you want. Sometimes, the answer will be no. You are older in your head than a human child at this age, you know full well what you were doing."

Heath nodded as he tried to understand.

He had been bad. He had hurt Taddy and he still got a cuddle.

Really, Daddy was right.

He did know better.