What was that?

At this hour of the morning, it was almost impressive to the old Pseudobane that he could coherently string the three words together. But it was for good reason.

Namely the bouncing ball of human child that had managed to squeeze its way between him and the sleek body of the Prussian he seemed doomed to share his life with. Willingly, of course, but doomed nonetheless.

One eye cracked open when the movement didn't stop, faint red glow from such cast across pallid flesh. Groggy dart to the source of the disturbance gave him the shorter frame of his son, soon to be the eldest of the brood, Xerxes.

"What do you want…" was grumbled out of the industrialist at the intrusive whelp, receiving nothing short of a scuttle out of him to sit at his elder's shoulders.

"You said I start learning the company today." There was a familiar tone in that young voice. Determined, ambitious… Of course, Thaddius would deny any accusation that it came from him, no matter how proud he actually felt about it.

"What time is it." More a demand than a question, still with a fog of grog on him.

"Uuuuh, five-thirty in the morning…"

One clawed hand reached up, fingers grasping the bridge of his nose carefully. It was accompanied by a string of expletives, muffled behind the palm of his hand, things no child of five years should ever have to hear. With the storm gone, composure regained, he relaxed again.

"Wake me up in an hour."

The order was received with a shove to one shoulder. "You told me to wake you up early."

"I didn't mean the ass-crack of dawn. Will you … jump on your mother for once?"

The pout was verbal in the boy's voice at hearing his father's irritation. "I did it once and an ankle cracked…"

Oh, he could feel that nasty little smirk spreading across her face at that. He knew how delicate the woman's ankles were and that even a small noise like the grinding of the joints could frighten a small child into never doing it again. Yes, War was certainly a devious woman, and not beneath using such effects to turn the tides in her favor.

Xerxes had proceeded to keep the elder's attention by poking him in the shoulder now. "And I have a bad hi— You are an obnoxious whelp of a child, Xerxes Blakk."

He could feel that same grin spreading across the boy's face, the one his mother likely sported now. "But I'm your obnoxious whelp of a child."

It was here the 'slumbering' Prussian started to laugh under her breath, only confirming suspicions that she was anything but asleep the entire time. "He's got you zere…"

Faintly glowing gaze narrowed in her direction, lips thinned. "Shush, you. You're not helping in the least."

A/N: I posted these as a part of the big drabble collection for Babylon Thrum, but a bud of mine thought they were getting numerous enough to require their own set. So here they are, on their own; they are no longer a part of the drabble collection they were in originally.
I am taking prompts for Dad-Thad from our postROTE storyline. They should be lighthearted, things you want to see out of Thad attempting to integrate married life and fatherhood. NO ANGST, I cannot stress that enough. I have Legacies Abroad and 100 Blinks for angst.