Worlds Apart (Madam Mim&Rave)

Sleep had done them both some good.

He needed the affection with her. It had been a long time, and her assumptions weren't wrong. David was attached to her, obviously more than she was to him. It was something he'd largely come to accept, mentally, yet emotionally and subconciously still fought against. Reyun was a fine man. He'd even call him his friend. But Eedahn was...his savior. His first love, since coming to this age. It was different. It was complicated, and despite the sting of not having the affections completely reciprocated, his feelings for her were strong enough that he continously stuck around to relish in whatever it was that she did offer him in terms of affection, and emotion.

Not to mention now-- a little one. A little one that cried so loudly she woke that very woman from his arms and had her shift up to tend to the little baby. David groaned out in his sleep, now not as warm with Eedahn gone from his arms. She was warm by nature. A human blanket of curves and hair. He reluctantly opened his eyes again and simply looked up at the roof of their hut, a loud huff escaping his lips. "Then she'll have her mother's volume and temper. I do not envy the father of her first child."

He laughed, teasing Eedahn a bit before getting up, ridding himself of leather garments to walk about more freely with nothing hindering anything. He'd softly lick the curve of Eedahn's shoulder, what passed for a good morning or post-nap kiss, before he raised a hand to run it along the soft cusp of his daughter's head. "She likely needs to nurse, so I'm not sure what help I'll be there but, I suppose it's time I did something fatherly instead of letting Reyun raise my daughter."

"I know very well what she needs, thank you," Eedahn said as she brought the baby to her breast and she latched to her nipple. "You can care for Mishra until it's her turn. See if she needs changing, then hold her. Maybe bounce her a little."

Mishra did, indeed, need to be changed. These people fashioned what passed for diapers out of tanned skins, emptying them into the grass outside and washing them in the river, along with the babies. By the time David was done with that Eedahn had put Nehet over her shoulder and was patting her back. When he came in she held her arms out for Mishra.

"Switch," she instructed him, taking one and giving him the other. Nehet didn't need changing yet, but needed to be burped. Eedahn laughed at his reaction when a bit of spit-up cascaded down David's back, before handing him a large leaf and helping him wipe it off. "Welcome to fatherhood," she teased. They believed that women were born with the innate, nurturing instinct it took to be a mother but that men had to learn how to be fathers. It was their duty to learn how. Biological parents took a key role in children's lives, but the entire village helped raise every child. If one mother was dry or tired--or had died--another would nurse her child until times were better. If one father was absent due to hunting or some other duty, another would discipline or play with his children. "Mother" and "father" were just terms for who had been their creators; everyone going through puberty and beyond acted as a parent.