Title: Sleep
Prompt: First Christmas as a Family (21/25)
Character(s): Lucivar Yaslana, Marian, Daemonar, Saetan SaDiablo
Word Count: 270
Daemonar screamed. Wailed. Flailed his fists and flapped his wings. Fat tears rolled down his chubby cheeks as Marian, a wild look in her eyes, bounced him, patted him, tried to feed him. Nothing worked. Nothing calmed him down.
The baby raged, his shrieks piercing eardrums. He was the reason for more than one headache, and Saetan couldn't blame the servants for keeping their distance. But he couldn't. He was family. And keeping his distance would cause too many hurts. Create too many wounds.
Lucivar, though. Once the whimpers turned into screams, Lucivar had fled, looking terrified.
"I don't know what to do," Marian said, cradling the baby as she stared at Saetan, her eyes filled with desperate hope. He was the experienced father. He couldn't blame her for that.
Saetan slipped from the chair to the carpet, pulling a blanket from the couch and laying it across the floor. He patted the space beside him. "Sit," he told her. Marian sat beside him, rocking the baby. "Lay him on his stomach."
"Are you sure?" There was a wary look in her eyes.
He nodded. "Lay him on his stomach." She did. He screamed more.
Ignoring the screams, Saetan placed two fingers at the base of Daemonar's little skull and slid them down his spine. Over and over he ran his fingers down Daemonar's back and, after several minutes, the baby began to quiet. A few minutes after that, Lucivar appeared at the doorway. He joined his wife and father cautiously, and Saetan made him take up the gesture. Skull to pelvis, a gentle sweep of fingers.
And Daemonar slept.