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Kalasin refuses to let Kaddar touch her after the baby is born, even after she's made a full recovery. When he tries to do so much as kiss her, she allows him four seconds of kissing, before moving away and giving him a dark glare.
Needless to say, when they say that they're going to stay up late to work on documents of state, they actually work on the documents of state, much to Kaddar's displeasure.
She's faced with a decision after Kalahari is born—during her pregnancy, Kaddar had "requested" that she sleep in the same room as him. Kalasin hated that decree and attempted to argue, but had ultimately failed. As an act of defiance, however, she refused to move her things into his room, as he had initially suggested.
"Are you staying tonight?" he asks her lazily, curled up under the covers.
Kalasin cuddles Kalahari as a defense mechanism. Kaddar notices, and smiles. "You've undergone a change of heart," he says, not unkindly.
The empress shrugs with one shoulder. "I like her better when she's not inside me." She crosses over and lets Kaddar kiss his daughter goodnight, before walking into her room that has, temporarily, become the baby's room. Tucking in the baby in her crib, she leans down and brushes her lips against Kalahari's forehead.
Later, after she's pulled the covers away and snuggled into bed, she feels Kaddar reach out and wrap an arm around her securely. Kalasin wants to complain, but finds that she can't. She does, however, move her head out of the way firmly after allowing him a good-night kiss.
The next afternoon finds Kaddar standing awkwardly in Nadi's office, watching her tidy up medical records. "What brings you here, lovely little brother?"
Kaddar sighs, rubbing the back of his neck. He can think of at least fifty other places he'd rather be right now, including back in the conference room with his councilors. "I…"
"Spit it out." Nadi turns around and looks at him curiously, and he ducks his head in the face of her penetrating gaze.
"I want a…a charm…for Kalasin," he says defensively.
Nadi blinks, piecing it together. "I'm assuming you mean a pregnancy charm?"
Kaddar nods at the floor.
She smirks, deciding that she can abuse her position as a healer, just this once. "I figured it must be something drastic, for you to show up here during work hours."
"She's not letting me touch her," Kaddar says mournfully. "I wouldn't normally, but…"
"You're desperate," completes Nadi. "I never thought that any woman would reduce you to this pitiful state, Kaddar," she says mock-seriously, trying to stifle a giggle. "It's quite amusing."
"Just give me the—object, will you?"
Nadi walks over to a separate drawer, and after digging around in it for a bit, she emerges with a golden diamond-shaped charm hung on a fine bronze thread. Kaddar blinks down at it when she sets it in his outstretched hand. It looks like any average necklace, although he can sense the strong magic inside it.
He looks up to see Nadi grinning at him. "No need to frown at it so, darling; there's no need to tax your poor imperial head trying to figure out the mechanics of it. Kalasin's a smart girl; she won't have any problems figuring the thing out."
Kaddar is at the door before something about that sentence clicks. "And what is that supposed to mean?"
Nadi smirks again, and he pulls a face at her. "I always liked Nadareh better, you know," he flings back, and before the door is completely closed, he hears her start to laugh.
Later that night, after they've settled down and she's sitting opposite him on the bed, brushing her hair out, he pulls it out from his pocket and studies it for a moment, still unsure about how to present it to her.
At last, he just tosses it to her, and she catches it instinctively, before examining it, and looking back at him sharply. "A pregnancy charm?"
Kaddar shrugs, observing the weave of the blanket, and makes a noncommittal noise.
Kalasin studies the charm, unsure about what to feel about this. After a while, she clasps it around her neck, and it glints against the light of the candle. "Thank you. I think." Leaning across, she kisses him on the cheek lightly.
After the candles are blown out, he starts to toss and turn, as usual. Within about ten minutes, Kalasin has had enough. "Stop moving!"
"What's your issue?" he asks irritably.
"Your head is on my pillow, I barely have enough blankets, your feet are cold and they are on my ankle, and last time you rolled over, you flattened my hand!"
"Mithros, you are so high-maintenance…"
"What, you expect me to just lie here and take this abuse? Do you even know the meaning of personal space—"
"It's not abuse; stop blowing it out of proportion, and shut up, or else you'll wake up my daughter."
"Your daughter? Your daughter? I carried her for nine months and suffered seven hours of labor to bring her into this world, and you do barely anything and suddenly she becomes your daughter?"
"I always liked her better than you did."
A sharp intake of breath, and suddenly he's kicked, hard. "I really hate you, you know."
"Mmm, I know." On a whim, he kisses her cheek softly, ignoring her mumble of halfhearted protest. "Warm up my feet, won't you?"
Kalasin rolls her eyes in the dark. "I knew you only wanted me for my body." With that, she wraps her arms around him, summoning her Gift. A wave of warmth envelops both of them, and he sighs contentedly.
Quite a while later, her head rests on his chest, one hand lightly fisted in the material of his tunic. Kaddar toys with a strand of her hair idly, wondering what had happened to personal space. He doesn't mind the lack of it much at all, though, and, closing his eyes, he falls asleep, and dreams of Kalasin and daffodils.
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-grin- how adorable!
