Welcome to Gaia! ::

“Oh, come,” Lithian consoled, attempting to calm the wriggling bundle of limbs and huffing noises in his lap, “…you will look beautiful. Don’t you want to look good for Grandpa?”

“No.” Tanarah squirmed, seeing to it that Lithian spent at least as much time resituating her and fixing mistakes as he did actually braiding her hair.

“No?” he repeated, adding a touch of a pout to his tone. “But Grandpa loves seeing you, and it will be all the better if you’ve been done up to show him that—”

“No,” Tanarah insisted again.

“And why not, mmm?” Lithian grappled with the tail end of his daughter’s braid as he spoke and managed to finish fastening it just as she broke free of his lap and started to toddle off.

“Grampapa…Grampapa loves me anyway. Don’t need to…” Tana reached, patting at her hair and squinting. “What is it?”

Sitting up from the mattress’ edge and dusting his hands over his clothes to straighten them, Lithian smiled as he eyed her. At three years old, both Tanarah and Talanah were walking — and even bursting into small runs — on their own, in addition to talking and voicing their thoughts on impressive range of subjects. Their use of vocabulary and sentence structure was still naturally limited, but they communicated well on the whole, and seemed to bring something new to the table every day.

It was late evening in summer, the sun edging near to the horizon and painting the ocean view in swaths of yellow, burgundy and orange. Some of that light spilled in between the curtains and across the floorboards as Lithian moved for Tanarah.

“They’re braids, love,” he explained, crouching and guiding one around so that she could try to see. “Like the way I do my own hair sometimes, hm?”

“Braids.” Tanarah patted her palms again to her head and hair, humming speculatively before appearing to come to the conclusion that this was acceptable. When he reached for her, she allowed herself to be lifted and propped onto a hip for transport.

The advantage of having walking, talking children of an age where they were at least slightly more manageable, was that they could be managed for some stretches of times by others. This was one such night. Not having had the opportunity to spend nearly so much time with his mate as he once had, Lithian and Casseth had spoken with his father, Kilian, and arranged that he and his mate watch over the girls for an evening while the two fathers spent some much-missed quality time in each other’s company.

“Casseth?” Lithian called down the stairs as he started his descent. “Are you ready?”

Lithian blinked at the response he got, startled at first. Then, though, as he stepped into the room and spied the situation in person, a chuckle slipped from his lips, and he turned a warm, amused look on his mate as he leaned over to kiss his cheek.

“Come here,” he said, setting Tanarah down to allow her to play with her sister as he guided Casseth into the room and moved behind him. After carding his fingers carefully through his mate’s hair several times, Lithian picked up a brush, giving several strokes to neaten out the kinks, and then setting it aside again to begin braiding himself. “All that fierce barbarian training…” Lithian tisked softly, “…and can’t even braid a little girl’s hair, hmm?”

The tease was gentle, though, and truth be told, Lithian enjoyed the process, since Casseth usually did his own hair and it was a private rarity to get to perform the simple task for him. When he finished, he kissed Casseth’s cheek before calling for the runaway child.

“Talarah…come here, sweetheart, are you ready to visit Grandpa?”

Lithian moved towards the door, catching the tail end of the sight as Talanah collided with the couch and toppled downward. In spite of himself, the corner of his mouth curved up, eyes warm with gentle amusement as he moved for her, already making quiet, consoling, “Shhhhhh, shhh-shhhh…” noises as he stooped to lift her.

“Come, you’re alright,” he murmured, giving her cheek a kiss and then brushing his thumb over it. “No bows, mm? We could do braids without bows…” He settled to a sit on the lip of the couch, gathering his daughter into his lap and bouncing her lightly as he worked his fingers through her hair. “Or just a pretty headband…hm? What’s your favorite color…”

“Cake,” Tanarah chimed in, darting in and reaching for the couch’s edge, attempting to climb up beside her sister. “My hair got did first.”

“Cake is not a color,” Lithian supplied gently. “Green like the forests? Golden like the great desert or your papa’s hair…pink like your beautiful little horns?”

“Oorrrrrange.” Tanarah bounced on the couch seat. “Like the sun. Pow!”

“No bows,” Lithian promised with a chuckle, arranging Tala as she wriggled and making quick work of fastening her hair into a single braid at the back before tying it off. “There, and all done!” With a kiss to the top of her head, Lith set Tala off to the side with her sister before standing and raising his eyebrows. “Ready to go visit your grandfather?”

“Grampapaaa…” Tanarah darted down off the couch, scrambling over to cling to her papa’s leg before bouncing. “Will Gramama make cookies?”

“Perhaps,” Lithian said, reaching to take Talanah’s hand and guide her down off the couch also. “But only if you’re very, very good. Do you think you can be good girls while Daddy and Papa are gone?”

With the girls successfully dressed, prepped, and gathered, Lithian and Casseth headed out, making the trip out of the house and into the outskirts of town to deliver their bundles into the temporary custody of their grandparents. The trip was enlivened by heavy discussion on topics ranging from what various colors would taste like to whether a “fire dragon” was “fiercer the sun” and which would win in a fight. They also discussed cookies, bedtime stories, where Daddy and Papa were going, how long they would be gone, and what they were going to do while out.

That topic was still underway as their approached Kilian’s door.

“We’re going to have a date,” Lithian said. “It’s something mates do when they care about each other very much and want to spend time doing things they like together.”

“Like games?” Tanarah provided helpfully, wriggling at her papa’s hip and using her grip on his shoulder to help bounce herself.

Lithian smiled. “Something like that. Food and…” Lithian’s gaze flit towards his mate, “…hugging and kissing, and…”

“Ewwwwww.” Tanarah wrinkled her nose, drawing a laugh from Lithian as he leaned over and pressed a kiss to her cheek. She leaned back, making a face. “Nooo kissing.” This, of course, earned her several more—to the opposite cheek, nose, and forehead—each earning its fair share of squealing, giggling and squirming. “Gross, gross, gross—”

“Alright,” Lithian said, hefting Talanah in his own grip with a light laugh as they arrived. “Let’s see if your Grandpapa Kilian and Gramama Valla are ready for you, mm?” He followed the statement with a quick knock.