"You shall raise your brother, Estarossa."
Meliodas raises an eyebrow as he looks up at his father, "Uh...father, I have an ARMY to train and look after. You're a father, why can't you do it? Or have one of the maids..."
"I CHOOSE YOU TO DO IT! DO NOT TALK BACK AND DISOBEY ME MELIODAS!"
Meliodas sighs and opens his arms slightly, enough for a baby in bundles of blankets to be place in his arms. "Where is mother?" His father shrugs, "Where she is supposed to be. In bed." This causes alarm bells to go off in Meliodas's head. He glares at his father and says coldly, "She is ill, isn't she? All because you wanted to knock her up with another kid even though past physicians that YOU KILLED later on, told you that it wouldn't be safe for her. Don't knock her up again or else she'll die! I don't care about you, this brat or anyone else, just HER. I'm warning you old man." With that, he flies away with the baby.
His father smiles, "That's my boy. He is definitely going to be king after me."
--
The baby is now awake an hour later in his room.
Shit.
Meliodas glares at the baby staring at him, "Because of you, I won't be able to go out. I literally had to ask one of those dumb commanders to take over training for today. Me, a member of the TEN COMMANDMENTS, has to play mother...I can't believe this!"
The baby smiles and reaches for Meliodas from the bed he is on. Meliodas sticks out his middle finger to him. "Sorry Esta, fuck off." Estarossa looks down at his feet, or at least tries to while laying down and his chubby belly in the way, before looking back at Meliodas with a deadpanned look. Meliodas finds his face adorable and couldn't hold back a smile. "Okay, you know what I mean brat," he gets up from his chair and flies over to the bed to sit down, "I bet you can't do that, huh." Meliodas brags proudly. Estarossa's eyes sparkle in delight and he giggles, clapping his hands.
Meliodas lays down next to Estarossa, "It's not that surprising. I'm sure you will be able to do the same in a few days." All of a sudden, Estarossa's eyes changes color, from lifeless black eyes to vibrant and lively baby blue ones. This caught Meliodas's attention right away. No demon has this eye color, unless...that's it! Meliodas picks up the baby and puts him in a sitting position on his stomach, "You are an Archangel Esta!" Meliodas says, bouncing Estarossa a little. The baby only smiles, not understanding the revelation.
Suddenly, the door opens and Meliodas immediately stops, not wanting to show his softer and amused side to anyone else. In comes a maid, with a baby bottle ready in her hand. "Your highness, I brought a bottle for the baby, in case he gets hungry." Meliodas looks at Estarossa, who stares hungrily at the bottle. Meliodas takes it and sits up, putting the baby in a cradling position in his arms. "I guess it's time for feeding," he opens the cap and angles it towards Estarossa's open mouth, he then gently pushing it inside and lets the baby do the work of drinking and holding the bottle. The maid points to the bottle and meekly suggests, "Maybe you should hold onto it in case he drops it?" Meliodas shakes his head and turns to give a menacing look to Estarossa, "Nah...I'm sure he knows that I don't like to play 'mother' to anyone. One drop of milk on him, a finger gone." Estarossa's eyes widen like saucers, full of fear. He pushes the bottle slightly further into his mouth for good measure.
Meliodas smirks, "Good," he looks back at the shocked maid, "leave us." She listens and scrambles out of the room, closing it behind her, "since you're being a good boy right now, I shall do this once for you. I'm sure you won't remember it in the long run." He closes his eyes for a moment before opening them again, revealing kind, emerald green eyes. "Hey Esta, it's good to see you buddy! Look at you," Meliodas boops the baby's nose, "you're so cute!" Estarossa smiles a bit in delight, but suddenly, a tiny weensy drop of milk slides out of his mouth and lands on a small spot of the bundles of blankets. Estarossa immediately stops smiling and looks up at Meliodas in fear. That said man's face froze except for his smile, which is still there, but has shruk a bit. Black washes away the emerald green color in his eyes, with that, so does the smile. Which was replace with a cruel curl of his mouth as Meliodas glares and snarls out one word.
"GONE!"
--
"Meliodas, he's way too young for you to start cutting off his fingers as punishment."
"Well, he understood me when I said to him not to let a drop of milk fall out of his mouth."
"Meliodas, he's just a baby. Hell, a newborn even! Just a few hours old!"
"He's an advanced baby, unlike those human weaklings up there between us and the angels. Besides you gave me, the leader of the Ten Commandments, a baby to raise. I'm NOT a mother! I'm not parental material. I don't have love for anything except fighting and killing. You're lucky that I wasn't a few years younger, I would've killed this brat by then."
With that, Meliodas leaves with Estarossa, who is still crying. He tells the baby to "shut the fuck up," but of course because Esta is a baby at the end of the day, he doesn't listen.
So another finger is gone.