#uma lagundo

Little ficlet thingo I wrote for the beautiful, kind, and wonderful @roobotdirt. Features Dom and his son, Nue (with mentions of Gundo, ofc.) This isn’t super well edited, so please be kind. lol.

Milk. 

Babies, to Dominick Marsden's very, very limited knowledge, were supposed to smell like milk. Or some facsimilie thereof. It was supposed to be a warm and cloyingly sweet smell, he thought as he buried his face in the soft seafoam coils below his chin and toyed with the remote control.

Nue didn't smell like milk. His smell, granted, was sweet and curdling and dug into Dominick's body in the way that only the awe-provoking scent of one's own offspring could, but the undertone was metallic, raw- carnivorous. The lieutenant chuckled to himself and planted an absent-minded kiss against the ashen skin. Nue's bright, round eyes stared up at him, and the toddler's pudgy fingers reached for his face. "...adda."

And it happened again, as it had for the fifth time that week. Inexplicably, tears were welling in the officer's eyes, and that once innocent scent seemed now almost poised to unravel his reality. His arms tightened (with thoughtful restraint) around the plush, chubby frame of his tiny son, and he pressed their foreheads together, breathing in the scent of the impossible...the improbable...the ultimate.

"{I love you so much,}" he breathed in Triig, pulling back and registering the confused, warbling expression on the toddler's face. Dominick mentally kicked himself- of course the child was picking up on his emotional outburst. He "fixed his face," as Caligo would have put it, and buried his nose back in the crook of the chubby neck, sighing in relief as the toddler cooed happily, giggling and grabbing at the back of his robe. Dominick's shuddering sigh tapered off into a chuckle, and then into a full-blown laugh. He pulled Nue back and held him at arm's length, grinning broadly at the youngster. "You're so damn cute!" he crowed. 

Nue shrieked back in laughter, tiny curls bouncing. Dominick embraced him again, and was overcome with the sudden sensation of emotional and physical exhaustion. He looked down at Nue, whose giggles were beginning to fade into poorly concealed yawns.

"You sleepy, kiddo?" He murmured into Nue's ear, receiving only a soft chirp in response.

"Daddy too," breathed the lieutenant, letting his eyes flutter shut. Just a moment, just a few minutes.

I wanted to thank @roobotdirt for their ADORABLE art of Dom and Gundo, so I wrote this. It’s not much, but I hope you enjoy dumb boys being dumb.