Edea sighed loudly as she collapsed onto the couch dramatically, drawing a hand to her forehead. "Babies are hard work," she complained, but there was a slight smile on her face all the same. She could still feel where the baby had been curled up on her chest. It was warm.

Then, she groaned in slight discomfort as Ringabel laid out on top of her, his full weight squashing her down into the couch. It wasn't the first time he'd done something like this, and it was actually a little pleasant once he got situated but still, he was heavy and sometimes he dug his hands into tender places. She let her hands rest on his hips, pushing slightly to warn him that she could, if she wanted to, throw him over the side of the couch and into the wall. She'd done it before.

He nestled his head on her shoulder, his breath hot against her neck. "But he's so cute," Ringabel commented, grinning at her from under his ridiculous pompadour. She could just barely see how bright his eyes were. "Not as cute as ours will be, of course."

"Don't let Agnès hear you say that," Edea murmured. Her heart hammered at the idea of 'their' baby. He'd have blonde hair, of course… but she wasn't sure what color eyes. Her blue eyes, or Ringabel's more-uncommon hazel? Curly hair or straight? Would he be tall or more vertically challenged? Given that both her husband and her father were much taller than she, she would like to look down on someone for once, though she supposed that any child would have to take a while to grow.

"Of course not. I'm not suicidal, Edea." He sighed loudly to himself, then declared, "I will say that Toivo is our cutest godchild."

He was their only godchild, so far. So far. Edea had given Agnès a calendar of how many godchildren she wanted over the next ten years, and the next one was scheduled to be born in two years (giving Agnès and Tiz ample time to recover from their first, but he needed a sibling soon, and they shouldn't wait so long as to not be able to recycle his baby things!) She wasn't sure if Agnès even had the calendar even more, but Edea had made backup copies, just in case.

"Alright, I'll agree to that," she said. It was true. Then she looked down at Ringabel. "What if they decide to have Yew and Magnolia be the godparents of their next?"

"They can't," Ringabel replied, and then he yawned. "We called dibs."

"You're not going to sleep, are you?" She wound her arm around his shoulder. "We're supposed to be keeping an eye on the baby." Still, she knew Ringabel's sleeping habits by now. He was hard-pressed to stay awake in the afternoon, preferring to take naps so that he could stay up later and wake up early. It was about time for his afternoon nap, just like any baby.

"He's asleep," Ringabel pointed out. "Asleep, and he won't be waking up for a while. We can take a quick nap, can't we?"

It was tempting. It had only been about an hour since Agnès and Tiz left, but it felt like much longer. They still had the rest of the afternoon and evening with him, and she knew from past experience that he tended to be more awake during those times. Depending on how long it took for the couple to return from the city, Edea might need to sleep and leave Ringabel awake to watch the baby.

"You can take a nap," she said, fully realizing that she was still trapped underneath his weight. "I'll stay awake, and if I fall asleep later, it'll be your turn."

He nodded. "Like taking look-out shifts."

She bit her lip, then nodded. "We can hear him from here if he cries, so… that's fine, right?" She threaded her hands into her husband's hair, ignoring his protest. As tempting as it was to mess up his pompadour, he would complain the rest of the evening, and it really was just easier to concentrate on the back of his hair, where there was less product and attention overall, and where he really liked it when she used her nails against his sensitive scalp. Of course, it was hardly the time to start things…

"It's settled then," he said, and closed his eyes. Edea let out a soft noise as she felt him begin to fall asleep, his breathing evening out. She wiggled her hand into his pocket to pull out his journal. It was no longer the journal he'd carried around on their journey, full of his past memories and his observations of the people and events that were happening, but one that was filled with dates and information and notes on their work at home. He liked to keep track of these things in writing and carry it around him, while Edea preferred her mental notes and calendar comments. Her calendar, of course, had been left in the office and while they wouldn't be working during the few days vacation they had taken to come and see the Arriors, she wanted to keep reminded on what she'd have to do when she returned.

And it was pretty much the only thing that she could do while Ringabel lay on top of her. Sure, she'd spotted some books that Agnès had, but those had been on a high shelf in the bedroom, well out of the baby's reach, and she hadn't thought to bring them out to the room. She couldn't possibly get up now, and she yet to master the art of telekinesis.

For some time, she lay there as her husband rested, thumbing through his notebook. It was peaceful, quiet…

Too quiet.

Something bothered her right at the edges of her mind. Ringabel was asleep and peaceful, his face relaxed. Toivo was asleep in the bedroom, hopefully happily dreaming whatever babies dreamed of. If he needed them, he'd scream or cry, right? Right?

Edea shifted uncomfortably. She should probably check on him, just in case. Maybe he was a quiet crier when he woke up… or something.

Ringabel's eyes opened when she tried to squirm out from under him. "Mmngh?" he asked, his voice thick with sleep.

"I'm going to check on him," she said, kissing his forehead. Grumbling to himself, the man rolled off her and to the side of the couch, pressing against the back as much as he could. It was enough that Edea could slide out from under him and roll to the floor, then stand. "And when I get back, I'm going to be on top this time."

He'd closed his eyes already, but she could see a smirk on his face and his eyebrows waggle. It was enough to make her laugh, and she smacked his hip and the side of his butt.

Then, she stepped toward the bedroom.

Inside, it was quiet and still. Immediately, she knew something was wrong. Her heart leaped into her throat when she noticed that the bed was empty. The blue blanket that they had tucked around him was laying abandoned; the pillows were in disarray.

Ringabel came up behind her at a run; Edea realized then that she had screamed.

"What's - oh. Oh no," he breathed, taking in the scene.

"He can't have gotten far," Edea said as she moved into the room. Toivo was crawling around, but he wasn't walking. He had probably just wiggled out of the bed and - there were a couple of pillows on the floor, she noticed, coming around the side. Had they been there before?

"No," Ringabel replied. "No, he - " He choked up, his face going nearly as pale as his hair.

Edea threw one of the pillows at him. "Get it together!" she hissed. They were not going to tell Agnès and Tiz that they had lost their child. This meant they had to find him as soon as possible and never speak of it again.

Ringabel gave her a watery glance before he pressed his lips together, took a deep breath, and nodded.

The windows were all closed; Edea hoped that this ruled out of any sort of kidnapping attempt. Tiz and Agnès were well known to live in Norende, but the existence of their child wasn't widely known, despite the months since his birth. Besides, who would kidnap such an adorable kid, and one who was related to not only the Miracle of Norende and the last Pope of Crystalism, but who also the godchild of the Grand Marshal of Eternia? There was no way.

She ducked down to look under the bed. Nothing was there except for dusty old boxes.

Ringabel was stripping the bedsheets off the bed, as though Toivo might have been hiding in them. He piled comforters, pillows, and sheets in one corner of the room until the bed was bare, and empty. "Do you think he might have left the room?" Ringabel asked.

"I think we would have noticed if he was in the living room with us," Edea replied, though she wasn't entirely sure that was true. He'd been asleep and she'd been distracted. From now on, she decided, Ringabel wasn't allowed to take naps ever again. He would have to suffer through the daytime hours like the rest of them.

There were a few wooden chests in the room that she knew from past experience held seasonal clothing for storage. Now she opened them just to be sure the baby hadn't somehow gotten inside one. Ringabel began to rummage through the standing closet in one side of the room. Together, the two of them tore the room apart.

Then, Edea was aware of - Tiz and Agnès's voices? Horrified, she glanced toward the door. Were the Arriors home already? This meant that they would discover their missing child, and then Edea and Ringabel would never be allowed to babysit again.. But instead of familiar faces, all she saw was the flickering of light…

It took her a moment to recognize what the light was. The pendant!

She recalled Agnès promising to check in every couple of hours. Oh.

Thinking fast, Edea rocked to her feet and turned to Ringabel. "Stay here!" she hissed as she ran into the living room. They had left their shard of the pendant on the dining table, along with their bags and Ringabel's sketchbook. Now, she scooped it up into her hands.

"Agnès!" Edea said, laughing lightly as she caught sight of the brown-haired woman in the tiny image displayed. "What are you doing?"

Agnès, as far as she could tell, was in the lobby of the arena in Caldisla that she and Tiz had gone to. A troupe of circus performers from Eisenberg were travelling to different ports to show off their skills, and the tickets had been a belated anniversary present from Edea and Ringabel. It had taken three months to convince them that Toivo would be old enough to be alright without his parents for the time it would take them to travel to the town, watch the show, have dinner at a nice restaurant, and travel back.

"Just checking in," Agnès said nervously, wringing her hands. "How is he?"

"Never better!" Edea replied, hoping that her own nervousness wasn't visible. "He's been a good boy. He's napping, now."

"Is he?" Agnès sounded relieved. "I had hoped he wouldn't find it too hard to sleep around strangers. When Mrs. Baker watches him for us, he usually doesn't sleep."

"Well… Ringabel's good with kids," Edea decided to say. "It's probably because they're so alike. Where's Tiz?"

"Tiz is in the arena. I had to come out and see how everything was."

"…. are you sure that's a good idea? How are you going to find your way back to your seat?" That was the last thing they needed. Both Agnès and the baby getting lost.

Agnès paused. "I'm right outside the door! I'm certain I can make my way back inside and to the left… or was it the right?"

Oh boy. Edea shook her head. "Agnès, just relax and enjoy the show! Focus on getting back to your seat. Everything's fine here, really!" It wasn't really a lie if no one had died yet, right?

In the bedroom, a large thump sounded.

Agnès looked as though she wanted to keep talking, possibly to demand Edea show some sort of proof that the baby hadn't sprouted wings and flown off or something like that, but Edea forcibly cut the connection off, and tucked the pendant piece into her bag, so that nothing would be seen or heard if Agnès decided to call back.

"Ringabel?" she called. "What was that?" If he had found the baby, hopefully he hadn't just been dropped. Ringabel had dropped him once already, when he was younger,

"Just some items in their wardrobe!" Ringabel called back. "I still can't find him!"

Her head was beginning to hurt. Surely Ringabel hadn't pulled items down from the top shelf of the wardrobe. It wasn't as though the baby could float… could he? Actually, it was best to be sure.

She rejoined him, and together the two of them continued to look through the master bedroom. Soon though, they had to stop and rest, and in doing so she had a moment to think and breathe and feel like crying.

And Edea very rarely felt like crying. The last time she had cried had been when… Ringabel had once again returned, sweeping up to her as if his reappearance was a normal occurrence and she should have been expecting him. She'd punched him then, for being such an idiot.

She punched him now as they collapsed (carefully) on Tiz and Agnès's bare bed. Around them, the room was in tatters. The bedding was piled in one corner of the room, having been moved around several times just in case the child might be hiding in it. They had rifled through all the boxes under the bed. They had even cleared out the clothing out from the wardrobes, just in case he had climbed in there. No sign of the child.

Ringabel groaned at the punch but otherwise didn't complain, burying his face into the mattress. They were both sweaty from exertion.

"We're dead," Edea said after she could breathe without her side seizing up. Her back ached slightly. "I can't believe we lost the Arriors' child in less than three hours. Is this a record?"

"He has his mother's sense of direction," Ringabel replied, voice muffled. She propped her feet up on his legs.

"If I were a toddler, where would I go?" she asked herself out loud, ignoring him. "Think, Ringabel! What would you do at his age? What did you do at his age?"

Ringabel propped his head up just enough to give her an incredulous look. "Don't ask me," he said, eyes wide. "At that age, I was crawling around in the sewer and trying not to die of exposure. I think I stabbed a man, once."

Edea cringed, at once regretting asking him that, even rhetorically. Of course, he'd done more than just get lost. Thinking fast, she tried think back to her own childhood, but found she could not. What had she done at that age? Her mother's stories of Edea's childhood had been all about how she'd been adorable and precocious and liked to try on her mother's clothes and play with her father's swords (until he had wised up and starting putting them out of her reach). Sometimes she had done as such at the same time. Then, there were all those stories about her slipping outside and giving everyone a fright….

"You don't think he got outside, do you?" she asked after another moment's thought, turning to him. "Maybe he sneaked by us when you were sleeping? After this, you're not allowed to sleep anymore. When we have kids, you're just going to have to stay awake forever. Sorry."

"We locked the - oh, when we have kids?" he interrupted himself, raising an eyebrow. "I believe our children would be better behaved, with a better sense of direction. But with their mother's fieryness, of course."

"Keep focused," she said, shaking her head at him.

"We locked the door," he finished. "And an infant would be hard pressed to unlock it. He can't even reach the doorknob. No, he's somewhere inside, and we just have to find him. You didn't see him? You were awake!"

"You were on top of me!"

"I've been on top of you plenty of times, and you usually pay attention to your surroundings," he leered, and Edea shoved him off the bed. He landed on the floor with a grunt and did not move.

There was a child's laugh.

Edea bolted up. At any other time, hearing a child's laughter would be nothing short of disturbing. She'd heard plenty of horror stories of ghosts and haunted houses, after all, but in this case a child's laugh was supposed to be around.

There, at the edge of the bed, Toivo Arrior grinned up at her, clutching the end of the mattress to keep himself standing. She stared at him. He giggled back at her, all gum and dimples.

"Where have you been?" Ringabel asked the toddler. He crawled over on his hands and knees, not bothering to stand. Toivo stuck a hand in his mouth and grabbed the man's hand with his other hand when he was close enough.

"He can't talk yet," Edea reminded him. Well, Toivo was babbling by now, repeating his favorite words back at people, but he had yet to form full sentences. Which was a shame, because Edea wanted to know what sort of black magic this child had just used to disappear and reappear out of thin air. It would come in handy for meetings.

Her heart was settling down, its beat going back to normal. She swung around until she lay on her stomach on the bed, reaching out to grasp the toddler's head in her hands.

"Young man," she said quite seriously. "You're grounded."

She'd always wanted to say that.

'Grounded' consisted of putting Toivo in the standing bathtub that was in the Arriors' bathroom. The boy did not have the coordination, nor the height, to climb out, and so Edea watched with a bit of catharsis as he slid around, wailing because he wanted to get out and cause more chaos. Take that! And that.

"Oh no," she said, as he slipped on his knees again. They had tied the bath curtain well out of his reach. "You're staying in there while we clean up."

They'd put toys in there with him, both plush and wooden-and-noise making. She and Ringabel weren't complete monsters, after all. Just two tired adults who refused to admit that they had been outsmarted by a child, for however short a period of time, and who needed to dispose of the evidence.

"You think they'll notice that we went through their room?" Ringabel asked as he refolded the clothes they'd tossed out of the wardrobe. Edea was working on making the bed, reaching back to all her military time to make sure she had it up to Tiz Arrior standards.

"Uh…" Edea thought for a moment. It was hard to think, because Toivo was yelling at them from the bathroom, and they had wisely decided not to close the door, just in case he pulled another disappearing act. "Hopefully not?"

"What should we say when they do?" he asked then, because they both knew that Tiz would suspect something was amiss, even if Agnès did not. Tiz had a sixth sense when it came to things like housework and cleaning, and he'd probably notice that the clothes were folded differently or something.

"I don't know! Don't jinx us!" she said, glaring at him.

"Well, I'm going to tell Tiz that we had sex on the bed," Ringabel said, smirking ever so slightly.

She threw one of those stupid decorative pillows at him, laughing unkindly as it hit him square in the face. He deserved it.

"Had sex on the bed and didn't clean up after ourselves?" she asked after a moment. Toivo was winding down, still whining and fussy, but no longer shouting at them from the top of his admittedly impressive toddler lungs. "I'm not changing the sheets, Ringabel! I'm already almost done." She had only to smooth all the wrinkles out and put the decorative pillows where they belonged.

Ringabel leered at her, which did not hold very well due to the pompadour that was now completely out of sorts. "Maybe we did laundry?" They would not have done laundry, because most of it was done by hand. "Or perhaps we laid down towels to catch any mess. Like that time we had sex in the - "

"Shh," she hissed. "He can hear you!" They did not need Toivo repeating any fun words he heard.

Ringabel stuck out his tongue.

Once they were finished cleaning up the room, hopefully thoroughly enough that Tiz and Agnès wouldn't question why their clothing was no longer in the same places that it had been in previously (Edea had tried, but she didn't have the patience to organize Agnès's panties by color and by size, as Agnès did), they swept back into the restroom to release Toivo from his prison.

He had long since resigned himself to his fate, sitting on his bottom in the bathtub and playing with his toys. When the two adults entered, he looked up at them, made a face, and looked back down at Mr. Hedgehog and Mrs. Pumpkin, who were currently going out on a date or something. Edea wasn't sure.

"Okay, buddy," she said, feeling oddly snubbed by a one-year-old. Was that normal? "You hungry?"

"I'm hungry," Ringabel replied.

"I'm not talking to you," she said, smacking him in the side with the back of her hand. Toivo giggled at her, and pulled himself up to his feet, bouncing slightly where he stood. "I'll take that as a yes," she decided, and picked him up.

He gurgled at her.

"Dinner it is! Ringabel, can you get the toys out of the bath?" Tiz and Agnès would ask too many questions otherwise. As her husband got started on gathering up the toys, she carried the toddler into the kitchen for dinner. She didn't know about him, but she was starving. She hadn't eaten in what… four hours? That was three hours too long.

Ringabel joined her in short order, just as she was pulling out the food that Agnès had lovingly prepared for her son earlier in the day.

"What's for dinner?" he asked, pulling up a chair next to Toivo. The toddler had been strapped into a booster seat already, flailing his arms about. Edea peered at two containers, wondering which one was peas and which one was spinach and if it really mattered which one she gave him. And where was the sugary stuff? She paused in her thinking to look up at her husband, ever the child himself. "Excuse me? You think I slaved over a hot stove all day to make dinner for you? You get the food!"

"You slaved over nothing," he pointed out, but stood from his chair anyway with a stretch and made his way to the icebox. Tiz and Agnès had left food for them for as well, since the two of them couldn't exactly go out to eat while babysitting, and Tiz had mentioned something about not trusting Edea in the kitchen. She wasn't sure what that he'd meant by that, but at the time been too busy listening to Agnès's instructions to ask.

As Ringabel was pulling out covered plates of a hardy country meal for the two of them, Edea spooned out portions of mashed peas and carrots and something that she thought was supposed to be chicken out on a plate for the child waiting for her. He was now practically bouncing in his seat as he watched her, opening his mouth like a little bird. To Edea, that was a little cute, but just a little. Then she paused.

"Do I have to feed him by hand? Or do you think he can hold the spoon?" she asked her husband, even as she mashed out the larger chunks with the back of the spoon. She had no idea how his parents fed him now. Last she'd been around him at mealtimes, it was Agnès who had exclusively been doing the feeding, and Edea couldn't exactly do that.

"Do you want to clean carrots from the ceiling?" he asked her dryly, giving her a wry grin. "I wouldn't recommend it. Here," he said, and reached over for the plate of baby food she held.

"What are you doing?"

"I'll feed him and you eat," he suggested. "I've seen it done before, likely more than you have. How hard could it be?"

Edea had her doubts, but she wasn't about to turn down a suggestion that she eat. Shrugging at him, she left him to it, picking up one of the plates that held real adult human food. Taking her place at the table, she watched her husband feed a small child with no prior experience. This was going to be great.

Ringabel pulled a chair close and scooped up a tiny bit of mashed peas on the edge of a spoon, holding it aloft Toivo's eyesight. She watched him, silently judging his technique.

"Here's an airship!" he crooned, punctuating with airship motor noises. The toddler opened his mouth, too distracted by the moving spoon to try and grab it, and Ringabel quickly swooped in and popped the spoon into his mouth.

Perhaps a little too quickly. Toivo, startled by the sudden metal-and-mash combination in his mouth, coughed and sputtered, ending up with most of the food on the front of his shirt. His face crumpled.

"A little more slowly next time?" Edea commented.

"Ah, perhaps." Ringabel had the grace to look guilty, and he reached up to with a conveniently nearby dishcloth to wipe the baby's face. "I'm going to have to change him again," the man commented as he scooped up more food.

His second attempt was more successful, with the spoon tapping the boy's lip until he'd closed his mouth around it. Ringabel flashed the boy a bright, winning smile and Edea felt her stomach do a flip-flop again. Neither of them had any business being so adorable.

Toivo considered the food in his mouth and swallowed it, then opened his mouth for more, and Edea ate her own food, though she actually chewed hers, as she watched Ringabel continue to feed the toddler.

"Hey Ringabel," she said, after a minute. She moved her chair closer to him.

He looked over at her in the middle of scooping up some of the carrots on the edge of the spoon. He'd been rotating throughout the different items. "What is it, my dear?"

"Feed me too." She tugged at his sleeve and opened her mouth, imitating the child in the room. Ringabel stared at her, hazel eyes nothing short of baffled and confused, before he laughed. The sound of it made her smile too, which sort of made it hard to keep her mouth open.

"Very well," he said, clearly intent on humoring her. "I'll show you my patented two-handed technique."

This technique wasn't at all impressive. Ringabel managed to spear a piece of meat onto a fork with his other hand and guide it into her mouth without stabbing her with it, his smile playful. He neglected to notice that his other hand was still, spoonful of food hovering in Toivo's reach. Having caught onto Ringabel by now, the boy grabbed the spoon and guided it into his own mouth, staring in confusion at the two adults who were supposed to be supervising him.

Edea chewed contently on her food as her husband went back to feeding their charge, once he'd noticed that the baby was pouting at him. Food really did taste better when someone else made it, and fed it to you. Babies had it great, she decided, and they weren't so bad all the time. Maybe it really was time to think about having their own.

Maybe.