A/n: Chapter 10? Wow I wrote TONS while I was in the hospital last month.
Chapter 10.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The howling was familiar, and Kurogane growled. Sakura and Syaoran had gone out for hot fudge sundaes with Mokona (they had all needed a break, and this world was particularly chilly), leaving Kurogane in front of the black and white television, which had been going swimmingly until the baby started.
"OI!" Kurogane called after 15 minutes when the noise hadn't quietened in the slightest. If anything it had gotten louder. "SHUT IT UP!" When he got no response he stomped into the bedroom. Fay was laying spread eagled on the bed, evidently exhausted from looking after a weak and sickly baby girl. Kurogane decided that he was just lazy.
"Oi, it's crying." He said, but Fay didn't stir. Kurogane sighed, and folding his arms somewhat stubbornly he approached the crib, the silver dragon belt buckle he was wearing clacked against the wooden high-bar, and he vaguely mused that it would probably scare her. It was then he got his first look at her. Nearly three months old her hair had grown thicker, lying in wisps around her face, she was ugly the way all babies were ugly, but had a slightly pretty look about her, like one day she could be beautiful. Dressed from head to toe in a pastel pink baby-grow, with her face flushed red in frustration she looked like cotton candy gone wrong.
"What's all the fuss about over you?" Kurogane asked acidly. Her face was scrunched up, button nose dripping, and tears streaked down her red face. "I don't know what you expect me to do about it, kid!" He snapped, and she continued to scream. He sighed. "MAGE! Oi, fix your kid!" He said, and nudged Fay's sleeping form.
"Five more minutes." Fay murmured, before rolling onto his side, completely asleep. Kurogane sighed heavily and glanced back at the cradle. He approached again, this time in defeat.
"What do you want?" He asked her heavily, and picked up a glittery rattle, made of see through plastic and filled with gold and silver stars and moons sequins. He waved it carelessly above her head but her screeching didn't stop, nor did she even look at him. "Shut up would you! I'm trying!" He growled. Hearing his loud voice she began to cry louder.
He glared and lifted her up very carefully like a bomb. He'd never even held a baby before, and was certain he was doing it wrong. His hands wrapped around her, under her arms, tiny body fitting between his palms easily, her legs sticking out awkwardly and her head lolling slightly.
"For a little thing, you're damn loud!" He grunted. She was incredibly small, even for her age, and Kurogane remembered Syaoran saying just last week that she'd not been eating. He wondered if she'd even gained weight since birth, weren't babies supposed to be pudgy? This one was teeny tiny, to the point the could've crushed her between his hands if he wanted. "Come on, be a good brat and shut the hell up." He ordered. When she didn't stop screaming he sighed and sat down in an arm chair, tugging at her clothes.
"You're not wet or gross…" He mused, peeking briefly into her diaper, then he felt like a pervert and quickly fastened her back up. "So I'm guessing you're hungry. Just my fucking luck." He said with a slight growl. "If you won't eat, I can't do anything." He glanced at a bottle of formula on the side, and reached out, only to retract his hand again. It was ice cold, he couldn't give a baby that, surely? He paused and remembered Fay saying he'd needed to 'warm water for the bottle'. He debated in his head the most logical way to do this, and eventually decided a pan or a bowl of hot water should warm the milk up.
He stood up, swiping the cold bottle and syringe from the side with his free hand and hurried downstairs, desperate to silence her, with her, still wailing, in the crook of his arm. The old metal kettle seemed to take an eternity to boil, and Kurogane didn't even know how to work the syringe, let alone could he be sure if he was doing the right thing with her milk.
"Would you shut the hell up, I'm trying!" He snapped at the howling baby, tipping the boiled water into the saucepan and putting the bottle into it. She ignored him and continued to sob, when the bottle was finally warm enough (Kurogane thought it was warm enough anyway, figuring he'd burn her or something he'd tasted it himself, other than it being gross it seemed fine). He placed the bottle teet to her lips. Greedily her little pink tongue lapped at the tip but it only took Kurogane a moment to figure out she was not suckling like infants should.
He sighed heavily, and squeezed the tip a little. The milk spilled out of the tip and she spluttered, dribbling most of it down her front. He panicked and yanked it away, worried he'd choke her. Fay'd murder him if he accidentally killed her. She whimpered. He growled.
"You're not gonna make this easy for me are you!" He snapped, and her tiny hands flailed a little as though trying to pull the bottle back. He sighed and set it down, grabbing the syringe. There was no teet to this thing, so he supposed she didn't have the problem of sucking, but it also didn't administer evenly, so she was understandably overwhelmed with milk when she was fed, and as a result always hungry. Probably explained why the little brat cried all the time.
"This is no use." He grumbled at the syringe, and stared at her, and she began to cry, much more softly and weakly this time as though she was giving up. She was very light, weighing less than his new sword, and small, he knew this build was probably from the mage's side of the family, but her lack of weight was slightly concerning. "I dunno what the hell to do with you." He admitted eventually.
"Waiiyah!" She howled. He tucked her hair a little away, slightly alarmed at how soft it was. He let his fingers trace over her face a little, her entire head was smaller than the palm of his hand, how defenceless and weak a little creature. Pitiful. As his finger brushed over her pouted lips, he felt a little tug and jolted. It had been like she'd kissed him. He stared at her before trying it again. Sure enough her tiny mouth lapped at the digit, and a brainwave occurred.
He vaguely wondered if this made him a paedophile or a pervert, but dismissed it and pushed his little finger into her mouth. For a moment she just sat with it in her mouth, looking distressed and clueless. He sighed, it had been a long-shot anyway. Any kid of Fay's had to be stupid anyway. However, as he pulled his finger back, he felt resistance, she was trying to suck, she was lousy at it, but she was trying. He smirked and continued. No sooner was the finger back in her mouth however, her jaw relaxed. It took several pretend removals for her to start suckling at his fingertip softly, it was barely noticeable, but she was doing it.
"Better, now try that with this." He said and replaced his finger (she screamed in the momentary absence and he glared) with the bottle. He eased it past her tiny lips and she just lapped at it, as he slowly threatened to remove it, she sucked.
It took nearly half an hour of giving her, and then taking away the bottle, before she'd finished nearly three quarters of it and Kurogane had lost patience. Then she gave up, choosing instead to curl all her fingers around one of Kurogane's, her sharp little see through nails like small flecks of glass or cat's claws.
"You're not half bad, when you're not screaming." Kurogane mused, as she yawned in exhaustion, having had a proper meal for the first time. Her eyes opened and Kurogane froze. He had been expecting blue eyes, the mage had forwarned him, but those eyes weren't Fay's eyes. Her intensely blue eyes were almost lilac, she blinked as she looked at Kurogane for the first time, and Kurogane had to think that even with the wrong colour eyes they bore the same softness, the same shape that he knew well: she looked quite a lot like his mother. He then dismissed this thought, because she was a baby… babies did not look like people. They were useless little lumps of people that women doted on and fussed over.
He brought her back upstairs and lay her in the crib, settling the almost finished bottle down on the side where it had been. He peered over the cradle bars at her and she smiled up at him, clueless of who he was.
"You're an ugly little thing." Kurogane told her stubbornly, and held her rattle above her head and shook it. She watched the sequins dance and her smile grew into a positive grin, toothless and awkward. Kurogane felt his own lips curl ever so slightly upwards. In his sleep Fay moved on the bed somewhere behind him and Kurogane quickly put down the rattle, he left the room without another word.
"Sakura-hime… did you spill Faerie-chan's milk?" Syaoran asked curiously. Kurogane raised an eyebrow, partially at the name, who on earth named a baby Faerie? He heard Faerie and thought of some small flittery little girl with pink hair and glittery wings. It was certainly not fitting for any kid of his! And his curiosity was partially due to the nature of the question he didn't understand the fuss over spilled milk, and Sakura shook her head.
"I haven't been up there since we got home," She promised.
"Mokona?" Syaoran asked. Mokona shook its head furiously.
"Mokona knows not to touch it!" Mokona promised, seeming offended at the accusation.
"The bottle Fay-san prepared for her was almost all gone, he says he didn't spill it so… one of us must have." He sighed and sat down, but didn't have to ponder the mystery for too long.
"It wasn't spilled." Kurogane said eventually.
"Hm?" Syaoran looked at him.
"She was squawking earlier, I fed her." Sakura blinked, it was the first time she'd heard him mention the baby at all, and Syaoran noted that he called her 'she' and 'her' instead of 'it' and 'thing' which tugged the young brunet's heartstrings. Was it possible Kurogane cared?
"You… you fed her?" Sakura asked in alarm. Kurogane shrugged.
"It kept her quiet." He muttered offhandedly. Sakura clapped and Syaoran started, looking fascinated.
"She drank it?" He asked, shocked.
"Not all of it no… most of the bottle though." Kurogane admitted, unable to see the big deal. Sakura burst into tears of apparent joy, placing one hand over her heart as though touched beyond words.
"Oh thank goodness!" She whimpered. "I was so worried for her."
"She normally doesn't manage that much in an entire day never mind one feed! How on earth did you do it?" Syaoran questioned, amazed that he, Fay, Mokona and Sakura had all failed what Kurogane had taken to naturally. Kurogane shrugged.
"I just… did it. It's no big deal."
"No big deal! Kurogane-san, you could very well have saved her life." Sakura breathed. Kurogane glared.
"Look I didn't do it for her okay, she was pissing me off and wouldn't shut up and that's the only reason I fed her." He snapped. Sakura nodded and hurried upstairs to go feed the baby who would now eat. Syaoran was smiling knowingly.
"What did you think of her?" He asked eventually.
"Loud… annoying… ugly…" Kurogane put forth, thinking carefully. It was true. She was loud and annoying, and in his eyes ugly. But all babies were at that age.
Ten minutes later the baby's wailing hadn't stopped, and very tentatively, Sakura and Fay brought her down.
"Sakura-chan… says you got her to drink?" Fay questioned, raising an eyebrow. He looked no better now he was awake than when he'd been sleeping, practically dead on his feet with stress. He clutched onto the little girl as though she was a precious gift.
"Yeah yeah, sing a new song." He grumbled, blushing a little. It wasn't his fault the little leech had eaten for him!
"It's just… we still can't." Sakura said softly, holding up an untouched bottle.
"I hate to ask," Fay started, looking totally lost. Kurogane sighed, he could see Fay was worn and battered, exhausted from having to take care of her constantly, and probably stressed to breaking point over the fact she still wouldn't take to the bottle.
"Pass her here." Kurogane grunted. Fay breathed a sigh of relief, and very hesitantly handed her to her father. Kurogane looked at her without hesitation.
"Oi… ugly, open up." He ordered.
A/n: Maybe I'm bias, but all babies ARE ugly, flame me for that all you want but they are they're too squishy. At about 3 months they start getting a personality though heh. A baby that won't eat is probably the most stressful thing in the world by the way.
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