A/N: Hi guys! Yes, It's time for another Kid Fic! This is another one with Neelam who's even younger than in "Love Me Like You", but you'll get what I mean very soon. This one was inspired by all the babies in my wagon when I took the train on Sunday! Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
Just You and Me
The door of her office had been yanked open, tearing Satya out of her reflection. She would have expressed her annoyance about it to Sombra, but her girlfriend was dressed to go out, which surprised her greatly.
"Are you going somewhere?" she asked.
"I'm sorry, but Lynx called. There's a new lead I need to check out personally."
Satya sighed. Sombra had been leaving the house more often than usual recently, and she only hoped it didn't mean anything bad was about to happen.
Sombra walked into the room with grand strides, obviously in a hurry.
"I promise I won't be long. I'll be back before dinner time."
She pressed a kiss on Satya's lips, the taller woman responding tentatively, and she was already walking out the office. Satya suddenly called her back, prompting her to turn around.
"Wait, what about Neelam?"
"I left her in her playpen. Just check on her every few minutes."
Satya was almost tempted to pout. The reason Sombra was usually the one keeping an eye on their daughter was because Satya had the tendency to get engrossed in her work and forget about everything else, Neelam included. It wasn't a problem when their little girl was sleeping, but right now she was wide awake, just having finished her early afternoon nap.
"I'll do my best."
Sombra flashed her a smile.
"Don't worry preciosa, you'll do just fine."
And with that she was rushing out the door, clacking it behind her. Satya sighed, looking at the 3D model floating over her desk. She stood up, her back popping as she moved for the first time since lunchtime, and she walked out of her office, to the room to the right across the hall. It was the second smallest room of their apartment, Sombra's office taking the prize for that, but for now, it was enough. The walls were painted in a soothing blue, a single window draped with soft white curtains illuminating the room with sunlight. There was a crib in a corner, small plushes resting at its foot and a mobile with little elephants attached above of it. A toy-chest, already filled with toys – truly Sombra was spoiling their little girl too much already – occupied a large part of the room. A changing table was placed close to the door, with a wardrobe close to it, and at the center was a playpen, also littered with toys. And seating in the middle of the playpen, a plastic chewing toy between her toothless mouth, was Neelam. She didn't seem so bothered by the fact that she was alone, probably because she hadn't even noticed Sombra was gone. Satya crouched in front of the pen, to be at eye-level with her daughter. She watched her play, pulling on the slippery toy while also trying to keep it between her jaws.
Their little girl was perfection, Satya had decided. A big round face, her skin a bit lighter than hers, but still shining under the light of the sun. Thick black hair already growing longer by the day on her head, to the point that Sombra liked to brush her hair every chance she had. Her beautiful blue eyes were so big it was unbelievable. When they suddenly stopped looking at the toy to stare at her mother, Satya saw how shiny they were. A big toothless smile spread over Neelam's face, and she began to gurgle happily. She shook the toy in her hand, making the plastic pieces rattle. Satya smiled.
"Alright, little one, Mamá left me with you, for now, so be a good girl and play until she comes home, alright?"
Neelam continued to gurgle happily, throwing her toy on the ground before exploding in laughter, the sound making Satya smiled uncontrollably. Once she was sure Neelam was doing fine, she stood up and returned to her office, leaving both doors open to make sure she could still hear her daughter.
Satya returned to her project, and the more she focused on her work the less she heard Neelam's gurgles in the background. At one point, the gurgles turned to complains, still Satya didn't seem to notice. It was only when everything turned silent that Satya looked up from her 3D model with a frown. Had Neelam fallen asleep?
She stood up and made her way back to her daughter's room. There, she looked inside the playpen, and her heart jolted out of her chest. It was empty, save for Neelam's many toys. Satya quickly looked around, turning three times around the room, but there wasn't any sign of the baby girl. She could feel panic rising in her chest. Neelam had escaped out of her playpen! But how? The strong screen of the pen wasn't broken, meaning she couldn't have crawled out of it, and she was too young to climb out, or even stand on her feet on her own.
Satya suddenly heard gurgles once again, and ran out the room, following the sounds back in her office. She threw the door open and sighed in relief. Her heart was still hammering in her chest, but at least she felt she could breathe again. Neelam was seating beside her chair, her arms outstretched toward the glowing holographic model on her desk. Satya quickly walked up to her daughter and picked her up, holding her close. Neelam looked at her for a second, laughing, before she began to fidget as if she wanted to play with the model once again.
"How did you get out of your pen?" Satya asked as she took Neelam back to her room, ignoring her toddler's fidget.
She looked at her daughter, whose attention was once again on her mother now that the glowing hologram was out of view. She gurgled once again, her tiny fists closing on Satya's long hair and pulling on them.
"Now you stay in your playpen, and you let me work, alright?"
She lowered Neelam once again in her pen, and though the baby girl continued to pull on her hair she managed to make her let go by giving her her plush otter, which was just about her daughter's size. Neelam began to squeeze and shake the otter happily, while Satya walked out the door, intending to return to her office.
She had barely sat down in her desk chair once again when Neelam began to cry, her shrill voice echoing around their apartment. Satya stood up with a sigh. She walked back to the bedroom and looked at her daughter.
"What is it this time?"
Neelam continued to cry, big tears flowing along her puffy cheeks and snot running out of her nose. Satya first thought her daughter had thrown her plush out of the playpen, since she was in her throwing period, but found the plush resting beside her inside the pen. She leaned and picked the otter up, and placed it in her daughter's hand, who didn't even try to pick the plush up. She continued to cry, exasperating her mother.
"Neelam…"
Finally, Satya picked her daughter up, balancing her on her hip while she rocked her lightly.
"You can stop crying now, Mommy's here."
And indeed, after a few minutes of being rocked, Neelam calmed herself, and Satya picked up a tissue to clean her face. The little girl once again got hold of Satya's hair and didn't seem ready to let it go.
"Let me guess, you want to stay with me, don't you?"
Neelam only gurgled at the idea, pulling on her mother's hair with one hand and the collar of her shirt with the other.
"You are exactly like your mother, you know? Always manipulating people to get what you want. Alright."
She threw the tissue away into the trash beside the changing table and picked up a blanket laying on top of the wardrobe with her empty hand. She brought Neelam to her office, placing her the ground as she lay the blanket down. Neelam had taken those few moments of liberty to crawl her way to the door, and tried to bite it. Very quickly Satya pulled her away from it, though, carrying her so she could sit on the blanket.
"The door isn't a good object to make your teeth on," she explained to her daughter. "Stay there." she then instructed her.
After making sure Neelam was seating on the blanket, Satya returned to her daughter's bedroom and picked up a few toys from the pen. She thought she heard Neelam whine, and she quickly returned to her office, only to find the baby girl had crawled to her desk chair, her hands once again grasping for the 3D model. Satya let go of the toys on the blanket and in the same motion caught Neelam under her arms and pulled her back to the blanket. She sat her there once again and took the closest toy she could find, a rattle. She handed it to her daughter and the little girl took it instantly. She shook it and the sound of the little marbles inside knocking into each other seemed to please her, as she began to laugh. She shook it again, making her mother smile.
"Alright, now you play here and you let mommy work, little one."
Satya returned to her chair and began to work on her model once again, the sound of the plastic rattle and her daughter's laugh punctuating her every thought. It stopped when Neelam threw the rattle away, which made her laugh even more. Satya was waiting for the little girl to start crying when she felt a little warm hand on her ankle. She looked down. Neelam had crawled to her once again, her sapphire eyes shining as she looked up to Satya.
"Obviously the blanket is not good enough for you."
She picked up Neelam, seating her on her lap. Instantly Neelam reached to play with the model, her gurgles turning to laughter as her tiny hand passed through the hologram.
"No, this isn't a toy!" Satya declared in a stern voice as she pulled Neelam away from the model by turning in her chair.
Instantly Neelam began to fidget and whine, a frown creasing her brows. She was just about to cry when Satya rolled the chair closer to the desk, allowing her daughter to play with the hologram. The little girl was once again all smile as she passed her hands through the model, trying to grasp it but never understanding why she couldn't. Satya only held her by the waist to make sure she wouldn't fall and watched her do. She was pretty sure she wouldn't be able to work for the next few hours.
As she continued to study her daughter's play, she started to notice an amusing pattern. Every time Neelam would approach her hand to the hologram she would be completely silent, but as soon as her hands had passed through she would begin to laugh uncontrollably. Watching her do was quite entertaining, Satya found after a while. But at one point Neelam stopped and found Satya's mechanical hand. She began to play with it, her hand only able to grasp a finger at a time. Satya let her do, admiring how Neelam seemed to be working methodically to understand how it was working. At least, that was what Satya was assuming. She drew a line, however, when Neelam began to put them in her mouth. Though Satya couldn't feel the sticky drool, she could still feel the pressure of Neelam's jaw around her fingers. She pulled her hand away from her daughter and glanced at the clock.
"Maybe it's time to give you a snack more eatable than my hand, hum?"
She picked up Neelam, once again balancing her on her hip while Neelam got a hold of her hair. They exited her office and went to the living room.
Satya couldn't hold her sigh at the sight of their living room. It was a mess of Neelam's toys, and apparently, Sombra had yet to fold their laundry as it was still in the basin by the couch. While their kitchen was mostly closed, beside the counter they usually sat at to eat, it wasn't big enough for Neelam's high chair, so they had placed it next to the counter. She slid Neelam in on the second try, the first almost resulting in her daughter seating with both of her leg on the same side. Once she was inside, Neelam began once again to fidget. One thing Satya had learned in the past few months, was that Neelam hated to have her motions restricted. She hurried to the kitchen and fetch a small pot of compote in one of the cupboards, and one of Neelam's blue plastic spoon. She heard the little girl whine, and she hurried to open the compote.
"Mommy's here, little one."
She hurried back in sight of Neelam and handed her a spoon half-full of compote. Instantly Neelam opened her mouth, making Satya smile. She fed her daughter, who was chewing on the near liquid compote to the point that some began to fall off her lip. Satya quickly picked it up with the spoon and tried to put it back in her mouth.
"You really take everything from your mother, don't you? Manipulation, messy eater... Well, so long as you don't start stealing money from high profile corporations, I think we should be fine."
Neelam exploded in laughter as if she understood what her mother was talking about. Some compote fell on her green onesies, only adding yet another stain to it. Satya only took a piece of kitchen roll to wipe it away and gave another spoon of compote to Neelam.
Once the pot was emptied, Neelam began to gurgle again. Satya was tempted to clean the spoon but she knew if she left Neelam for even a second there would be consequences. Instead, she left the spoon in the pot on the counter and helped Neelam out of her chair. She placed her on the ground and watched as the baby girl began to crawl around the living room, only stopping to play with the laundry in the basin. She pulled out one of Sombra's shirt and began to play with it and put it in her mouth to chew on one of its sleeves. Satya sat beside her and let her do. Then, Neelam left the shirt on the ground, as if she had lost complete interest in it, and crawled away, until she found one of her toys, a plastic ball with a tiny dinosaur trapped inside. She picked it up, shaking it until it slipped out of her hand. It rolled all the way to Satya who picked it up. Neelam followed and Satya handed the ball back to her with a smile.
"Here you go, little one."
Neelam picked up the ball but it slipped out of her hand and rolled away once again. She crawled after it eagerly. Satya watched her do with a smile. She looked around her. On the coffee table beside her rested a bunch of plastic cubes which someone had taken the time to align there. She assumed it was Sombra since Neelam couldn't stand to reach the table yet. She picked them all and placed them on the ground in front of her. Their six sides all represented either a letter of a number. She chose the numbers and began to pile them to build a pyramid. Suddenly a ball came crashing through her building, and Satya looked severely at Neelam who was seating on the other corner of the carpet, laughing loudly.
"You really are doing anything you can to prevent me from working, aren't you?"
Neelam only continued to laugh.
When Sombra came home, right before six, she was expecting to find Satya very close to cracking, and Neelam crying in her arms. However, the house was calm, the living room had been cleaned and the laundry folded – except for one of her shirts which were back on the hanger on the balcony. She frowned and locked the door behind her. What was going on?
"Satya?"
"Sshh..." was her only answer.
Sombra quickly took her jacket and shoes off, and she made her way to her girlfriend's office. It was empty, even her computer was turned off. She thought she was dreaming. She then made her way to Neelam's room. She found Satya there, standing beside their daughter's crib. She would have almost be tempted to snake her arms around her hips, hugging her from behind, but everything felt so surreal that she only approached the crib with apprehension. There, she found Neelam sleeping soundly on her back, her plush otter not far. Her daughter was drooling a bit, but it only made her more adorable, her tiny hand folded into equally tiny fists.
"She just fell asleep," Satya explained.
Sombra frowned.
"Is everything alright?"
Satya turned to her, a satisfied smile on her lips.
"Of course, why wouldn't it be?"
"I don't know... I just thought..."
Sombra shut herself by pressing a kiss on Satya's cheek. She then looked back at Neelam and smirked.
"You know, she kind of looks like you when she sleeps."
Satya felt her cheeks grow hotter and her voice waver as she declared:
"And she'll look like you if we don't let her sleep."
