Prompt: First A/G Christmas with their new baby...

I Can't Explain – G – Family – Modern AU

Llacheu was two weeks old and already Guinevere felt like she had never been anything but a parent. She and her husband Arthur were exhausted. Beyond the tired they had felt when they had pulled two all-nighters in a row back in college; beyond the fatigued they had felt when training for a marathon together.

"I think the best Christmas present I could possibly get right now, is a full night's sleep," joked Guinevere as Arthur stroked the downy dark head of their nursing baby. Most of Llacheu's features were already obviously from his father, but his coloring was purely from her.

Arthur smiled softly at his tired wife, "Lay down and maybe you can sleep while he is still nursing. I'll keep watch and put him back in his crib when he's done.

Guinevere told him, "All right. I'll just close my eyes for a few minutes. I just don't think I can get to sleep while he's nursing. It still hurts like the dickens." She felt Arthur smooth back a curl from her face as she closed her eyes.

What seemed like seconds later, Guinevere awoke with a start from vivid dreams of fishing her baby out from between the bed and the wall. The sun was shining brightly through the frost-rimmed windows. Neither Arthur nor Llacheu were anywhere to be seen. She checked the bedside clock – she had been asleep for five hours! Llacheu had never slept that long, hopefully he was still alive.

She pulled on a robe to go look for her boys, tamping down on all of the myriad fears over what could have happened. Her breasts felt engorged, so he must be starving now. Just because he was already back up to birth weight didn't mean he would stay there, did it?

Guinevere finally found Arthur and Llacheu by the Christmas tree that Auntie Morgana and Arthur's best friend Merlin had put up and decorated for them. The baby was in his Moses basket almost underneath the tree, smacking his lips and waving his fists up at the colored lights Arthur had plugged in. His snoring father lay supine next to him, one hand propped against the basket, the other flung above his head.

The new mother gingerly stepped over her husband and pulled her son from his bed. Sitting cross-legged next to the tree, she adjusted her robe to give her baby access to a sore nipple. Soon Llacheu's suckling induced the now familiar let-down and his swallows became deeper and more regular. She looked up to find Arthur watching her, a gentle smile adorning his handsome face.

"Best Christmas ever?" he asked her softly, putting his big warm hand on her knee.

Guinevere just smiled and nodded, holding the sweet smallness of her baby to her chest.


A/N: The name Llacheu is from Sophie-Lou's stories on ffnet.