Four months of amazing memories had come and gone. Parenthood wasn’t easy and they knew it wouldn’t be. Soon Steele was back to having to do jobs, mostly waging war where needed. It was dangerous so it wasn’t like Estelle and Eldora could be with him. Besides Xunatar was interested in his grandchild a little bit. The little girl was a breath of fresh air and she was growing stronger every day. She was more developed than most children her age, Angela said it was amazing how fast she was growing. It might have been her lycanthrope blood.

Eldora had Estelle on her hip inside of Estelle’s newly made room. It had toys strung everywhere, books everywhere, but her crib was all nicely decorated and full of soft things if Estelle wished it. She was absolutely doted on by everyone. Including her nosey ass Uncle Dante.

“When do you think Uncle Dante will show back up.. Huh? He really wants to take you out with him.” She bounced Estelle who was babbling full force. Making lip bubbles and getting excited whenever she found her toes. She would squeal when she found them and Eldora laughed. “If I only had your problems…” Life would be sweet.

Eldora sat down in the rocking chair that Steele had gotten for her recently. She picked up a teddy bear and teased Estelle with it. Estelle for a few moments laughed and giggled before she shrieked in delight. “You are going to wake Auntie Rize up more.” She laughed but the room could only funnel sound into her and Steele’s.

Estelle grabbed hold of the bear the best she could and pulled it down to her. “Is it soft? Uncle Dante got it for you.” Estelle was now laying back down on Eldora's lap. Her big blue eyes were looking up at her mother. "What?" Back to babbling Estelle went and Eldora kept the bear propped so it wasn't on top of her.

While Steele and Eldora reaped in the benefits of being parents but Dante was especially attentive when it came to seeing his niece. It seemed like every day he was visiting, watching her like a child would a new toy. She was a funny little thing, curious of the whole new world and he couldn’t take his eyes off her. Every once in awhile, he would gift her all sort of things- toys and clothes that she would quickly grow out of and others things. But whenever he did visit, he would…inadvertently cause problems for Eldora.

The questions came, and at first they were innocent- how to hold Estelle best, when she would be able to start talking and walking, and whether she would recognize him as family or not. But as time went by, the questions grew more obnoxious and needless. Most of the time he would realize he was overdoing it when Steele would throw him out or Lotus pulled him away. Today neither were there to watch over him and not wasting another moment, he slinked into Estelle’s room and peeked inside to see if they were there. Sure enough Eldora was there with her daughter playing with the teddy bear that he had recently gave her.

“Aww! There’s that little angel!”

Without missing a beat, he moved in and stared at the little darling. “How is she getting so big, so quickly? She’s shooting up like a sprout!” His fingers reached over to tickle her delicate tummy for a second. “Do you think she recognizes me? How soon do you think she’s be able to talk?” He then looked to Eldora giddy like, “How about when she starts to walk? Think she would be able to dance in that cute way babies can soon afterwards?”

“And how are you feeling? I’ve heard that mothers’ breasts tend to get sore after a bit from feeding their children.” He gently cupped a feel against her bosom to test it out for himself whether the stories were true without giving it a second thought. “How does that feel, sister?” 

Eldora smelled Dante come into the room and her eyes rolled up to meet his. “You smell like my sister.” Estelle saw her uncle and unfortunately for both her mother and father she loved him. She squealed happily at him and moved her hand to try and grab at him. “Angela says its the lycanthrope blood. She is probably going to grow fast… Be very tall just like Steele.” She chuckled a bit. “And beautiful, look at her Dante…”

She took a moment to groan and looked up at him. “Yes, she recognizes you. She knows your name when we say it because she gets this stupid grin on her face and looks for you. She probably won’t be able to talk for many, many more months but she started to babble.”

Eldora finally cracked a smile. “In another month or so… You can probably hold her up and she will bounce in your lap. Right now she is just finding her toes. She thinks its funny when she grabs them.”

Then he started to touch her. Protectively she cupped Estelle so she wouldn’t fall off her lap and backhanded Dante as hard as she could. She put Estelle to her hip and stood up. Estelle was laughing hard as Dante recoiled from the hit. “Do you like it when I hit Uncle Dante?” Eldora did it again and Estelle squealed once more. “Fantastic she is a sadist.”

Then her wheels started to spin and she smiled up at Dante. “Do you want Estelle or not. If you take Estelle you have to stay in the Cradle and Lotus has to be here. You give Estelle back as soon as I come back from where I need to go or if Steele gets home. IF she has any markings on her I will kill you or worse… Since I can’t kill you I guess it will be torture. She eats a lot but there should be some milk for her already. Make sure its warm for her. Lotus knows how to do that.”

She booped Dante on the nose. “Any questions?”

Perhaps he should have stopped while he was on fire. The girl certainly loved him so, despite the irk of her parents’. What could he say, he was a lovable little menace. At least he and Eldora were civil with one another when they were by themselves right now with Estelle and his keen interest was adorable, if not a bit annoying. His niece was a heart melter and it was working on him greatly.

But he did screw up big time when he touched her and before he knew it, he was on the floor, reeling from the backhand he received. “Ow! What was that for?” He looked up why holding the side of his face and then looked over to Estelle as she laughed. “Aww!” He forgot about the pain for a moment before Eldora hit him again, this time for an experiment. “Ow!”, he repeated as he rubbed his face some more. “Great, she picked up one another thing from you aside from your looks, sister.”

He wasn’t expecting for her to hit so hard, but then again he hadn’t been that much of a pain as he was now to her. Heaven knows that his brother would have hunted him down and beat him mercilessly for it if this reached his pointy ears. Damn dog. Getting back up to his feet, Dante nodded and reached to take his niece. “I wouldn’t let anything happen to her, promise. And Lotus is here, she’s in my room, of course.” He hugged the girl tightly against him, minding her head gently. “No, there’s no questions for now…”

He hurried off to share the news with his lover while he let Eldora do whatever it was she needed to get done.

“For touching my breast! You are lucky if I only mention to your brother that you were bothering me. Can you imagine him if I tell him you were groping me?” But still Estelle was laughing at him so Eldora did it again. “Uncle Dante makes funny faces doesn’t he?” Estelle began to yell babbles at him.

Eldora made a face and sighed as she handed Estelle off to Dante. “If you want to pack a bag for her… You can always come back and make one since you are treating her like a lost treasure right now.” She chuckled a bit and kissed Estelle on the forehead before gating away from him.

“Angela we need to talk,” Eldora plopped down into a chair next to the goddess.

–

Lotus was reading a book and looked up as soon as he came in. “Oh… What did you have to do to pry her from her mother.” She chuckled a bit and held out her arms to take Estelle from him for a moment. “Hello, sweet heart.” She kissed her all over and Estelle laughed. Looking up at her uncle Estelle squealed at him. “Oh, she is just the sweetest Dante… We should have two of her.” She tickled Estelle’s chin. “Wouldn’t that be something?”

He wasn’t a fan of getting hit, but Estelle’s reactions were cute so he was conflicted. “Don’t you think you can hit just a little bit softer?” It was a rhetorical question of course, he knew that she would have probably hit him harder had she not be holding Estelle. Of course he would have picked her hitting him over Steele. He was afraid that he would go overboard and attempt to kill him.

 He heard what she was saying, but he was too busy playing with Estelle. “Yup yup, sure sure.” Dante scurried off with her into his room and found Lotus reading. How dull when he had someone far more interesting than a book. He handed the baby over to her and he smiled as they played. “Oh she said she had something to take care of. Nevermind that I thought she wasn’t going to after I…sort of touched her breast…”

He was quick to explain though, “But it was because I heard that a woman’s breasts get sore from feeding. Besides she got me good twice across the face, see?” He pointed to where the side of his face was still sore. “But it was worth it to see this little smiling young lady” He tickled her stomach again before he thought about his lover’s words. “Two? Hm, think we could handle two babies? One seems like a handful, but if they are as cute as Estelle, then I’d be ecstatic to have them.” It was a surprise but then again, he had noticed that Lotus taken to her niece as well, not quite as much as he had but it was obvious that she cared deeply.

Lotus took a moment to look at Dante and tilt her head. “Shouldn’t you be grabbing my breast and not my sister’s?” There was laughter from her lips for a minute. “They do get tender… Women have to normally put cabbage leaves on their breasts. I can show you later if you wish.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek. Estelle squealed in her arms and she bounced her softly.

“My poor Dante getting smacked around by tiny evil Eldora. What is the world coming to Estelle.” Estelle moved her hands to her mouth and Lotus helped to keep them out. “No, no. No fingers in your mouth. Icky.” She knew that the baby was only exploring herself and soon she would be trying to put her whole foot in her mouth.

Estelle giggled at Dante and began to drool all over herself. Lotus took a cloth by the bed and dabbed her mouth. “Yes, you are. You are worth it aren’t you Estelle?” She smiled as Estelle now cooed in her arms. “I think if we have two it wouldn’t be at the same time though. Put a little time in between them. More fun for us right?” She leaned over and before she could kiss him put Estelle in between their kiss and Estelle giggled wild.

“That’s our girl.”

“Well, you weren’t around and plus, it was a knee jerk reaction. I wanted to see for myself her reaction. Apparently either I did it too hard or she wasn’t approving of my touch.” Either way he shrugged it off but then he held up his hands over Estelle’s ears. “Lotus…not in front of the baby. She has delicate ears. But I am all up for later, darling.” He uncovered her ears and sighed as the girl enjoyed her time with her aunt and uncle. She really was a cute little thing.

“I know, it was tragic. I just wanted to know what it was like for a mother with her child, was that so wrong?” His face still stung a bit, but the color was at least dying down now. Dante found her trying to put her fingers into her mouth adorable, even as Lotus insisted on her not doing that. He had a weakness for children it seemed- if his attitude didn’t already speak for that.

“She’s a real beauty, must run on your side of the family”, he winked at Lotus. Eldora, Lotus, Kirika…they were all beauties in their own right and soon Estelle would grow up very pretty like they were. But then the conversation went to the two of them having children. They still needed to to make sure that her life was spared from the council and he knew that he wouldn’t mind having children with her. “Fair enough, besides why rush. When we do have them, between the two of us, they will be very beautiful children." He moved to kiss Estelle on top of her head and then Lotus on the lips. “She’s a good little one, too good for my raging brother and midget sister of yours.”

She chuckled a bit at her lover. “You know she doesn’t like to be touched by anyone but Steele.” Lotus looked shocked for a moment as Dante covered Estelle’s ears. “Well aren’t you just the father figure together.” She leaned over and rubbed her nose against his. “I’m sorry I was so vulgar in front of little Estelle. Later does sound wonderful.”

They were right not to rush having children. While Dante and she were on a clock, both were rather young. There was no need to rush having this child that they were forced with. Once Eldora was back they gave her up to her mother. Settling into their nightly ritual, they really didn’t move too far from Estelle these days. Dante was here most days anyway.

Two months went by and they had spent the best time with Estelle. She was growing so quick. “Da da da da,” Estelle was babbling endlessly now understanding who people were. She was rolling on the floor now in her nursery and the four of them were watching contently. Estelle pulled herself up on her hands and knees and attempted to propel herself forward. She fell on her face and started to cry.

Eldora was up out of her seat but stopped shy of picking her up. “Da da da,” Estelle whined before stopping and trying again.

“She is a stubborn little thing…” Lotus said as she looked over at Steele. “How’s it feel to know she says Da first?” Eldora had an annoyed look on her face before smiling. Eventually, Estelle rolled her way over to Steele and she sat up and held a toy up to him with a toothless smile and squeal.

“Lotus you don’t look so good…” Eldora eyed her sister.

“I feel really queasy… Ask Dante I’ve been sick for the past few mornings.”

Dante shrugged at her; he knew that Eldora was a bit…touchy about who touched her. Why on earth would she let that dog brother him do it was beyond him. “Meh, she needs to relax”, he said with a few chuckles. He didn’t think that he was behaving differently with Estelle around, but he did have to take another look at the situation that unfolded. “Really? I thought I was just being a good Uncle. Look at the little darling, she don’t need to hear such things yet.” She was so innocent looking and fragile, and he doted on her greatly. It didn’t take much for anyone to see it. He did give Lotus a devious smile as he thought about what they would do later on after giving Eldora back her child.

When she had came back from whatever errand she had to run, their niece was taken and the two of them were left all alone. Needless to say, the two went off and did what they did best.

Time flew by and soon the baby was growing even faster and was getting accustomed to the people that loved her. Steele was close by, watching his daughter as she attempted to move on her own. She fell and started to cry, which made Dante watch with caution while Eldora moved to see to her. But Estelle was a tough one and she proved it as she tried again. Her father smiled as she called for him and moved his way. “Just can’t believe that she was so tiny long ago. Before I know it, she will grow into a beautiful and strong woman. Wish I could keep her this small forever.” Kneeling over, he retrieved the toy and played with it with her. Dante sighed in relief before looking to Lotus. “Yes it’s strange. It just started up days ago…” Steele caught wind of what his brother said and while he played with Estelle, he thought for a moment. “For no reason? If I didn’t know better, I would think you were pregnant.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, she can’t be. She’s under lock and key, thanks to Angela…right.”