[FIN] "Motherhood" (Mitternacht & Mittere)

[mouselet]

Now that she had actually experienced it, no thanks to a certain god, Mittere could agree that childbirth was not a pleasant experience. Of course, she'd had worse pains, and they'd healed. The problem in this case was the six balls of pink, white, and black fur that had come into her life.

She'd already been a mother once, to Tarafa's first litter. As well as Nyesha's kids. And Kestven as well. Moto'nafsi's kids lived with him - at her insistence - and she didn't have to raise them. But she was completely stuck with this lot.

The pink lioness released her breath in a sudden rush out her nose. There was no hope for it, she couldn't fob off the parenting on anyone else without raising quite a few eyebrows. But damnit, if she was going to do this, on her own, she was going to do it her way. And that meant that even if none of them chose to become Warriors, they'd still have all the training for the job anyway.

Thank all the gods there were that the six cubs were asleep for the moment. Maybe she could actually catch a few winks as well.  

[Bronze Coffee]

She thought they were asleep, anyway. Odd eyes popped open as he heard rustling around of his mother-dearest seemingly settling down for a nap while her cubs were.

Mitternacht, he was called, or Nacht for short, so they didn't get confused because his name sounded an awful lot like his mothers... At least the first part of his name. His ears swirved to watch the pink lioness, narrowing his eyes at her. Training had happened a little, today. It wasn't easy to train six cubs who's attention span was hardly any better than a gnat. Still, he figured she thought her cubs would be completely exhausted. Nacht didn't sleep much. He prefered staying awake in case he missed something.

He moved away from the rest of the litter who were completely curled up on top of one another and tried his hardest to be quiet, to stalk behind her. Blue and black eyes focused on her back, wanting to catch her by surprise and bite at her. Stealth wasn't exactly his strong suit, considering the fact Nacht hadn't quite paid too much attention to that lesson, but he was trying!  

[mouselet]

The pink lioness was in the process of settling herself more comfortably when she heard the unmistakable noises of someone else moving around the den. Squeezing her eyes shut for a moment she wondered why it had to be her. Stupid question, really. Or rather, one that served no real purpose, for there was no good answer and it was a waste of time to even ask it.

Despite the fact that all the cubs had names and were awake at least half the day now (though not all at once, they needed an awful lot of naps), she hadn't yet gotten to the point where she could predict which one would do what...such as which one was most likely awake and moving around.

She wasn't even certain what the child was trying to do, other than avoiding taking their nap. The question worth asking was should she interfere now on the basis that the kid was likely to wake up the rest, or should she just let them attempt whatever it was they thought they were doing?

Mittere had taken both roads in the past, and truthfully, both had merits. It varied based on the cub. Giving a purely mental sigh at the loss of her own nap, the Master Warrior opted to be proactive. Turning slightly and reaching out with one paw, she set it down - gently, where the noises indicated the cub should be.  

[Bronze Coffee]

Even though he was watching her, Nacht wasn't sure what she was doing or would do because of this. It wasn't the first time he was avoiding his nap. Stupid naps are stupid and he really didn't like them. He missed so much when he slept and it made him so mad. At least, that's how he felt. Who was to say if he actually missed anything of true importance? Still, if anything important did happen, he sure didn't trust his mother-dearest to wake him up and let him know what it was unless it was absolutely life threatening. Then he was still a little iffy on it. (He really does love her.)

Before he really knew what was happening his mother had done her job and pinned him to the floor, which just caused him to growl and bite at her toes. He was hoping to bite hard enough that her paw would retract and he could keep doing what he was doing. "Off! Your fat paw is crushing me!" Apparently he didn't know how to hold his tongue at all.  

[mouselet]

Well, that solved that problem. Once she'd turned, the lioness could easily identify Mitternacht, or Nact as he generally responded to, as the culprit. This time. He was one of the usual suspects in fact, so perhaps she should have guessed it was him sooner.

Him biting on her paw was more annoying than anything else, but she'd put up with worse and ignored the sensation. The talking, however, was a bigger problem. Movement wasn't as likely to wake the rest of the litter as talking was.

Turning her paw so that it cupped the cub from behind, Mittere slid her son along the floor of the den, away from the rest of the kids, so that he was up near her head, instead of her tail. That made him less likely (for she couldn't entirely count out the possibility) to step on any of his siblings and wake them up. Hopefully he'd stay quiet as well.

She didn't speak, not yet, simply gave the boy a Look and a raised eyebrow.  

[Bronze Coffee]

Sliding across the den floor wasn't exactly the most comfortable thing in the world and he growled again, tail lashing out, wrapping arms around her leg and let his claws dig there. He bit down harder, hoping to sink teeth into her and then huffed. Nacht shoved her paw off of him with his back leg and then proceeded to flip himself over on his paws and shook himself out. Stupid big lioness.

He glared up at her and snorted before sitting down, ears perked, tail still lashing out, annoyed. The cub snarled and lunged at her face, wanting to bite into her nose. He honestly wasn't aiming to hurt his mother, no. Nacht just played rough like most of the litter did.

If that didn't go according to plan, he was going to brace himself to be shoved off of her and more sliding across that uncomfortable floor.  

[mouselet]

Again, there wasn't much Nacht could do that Mittere would truly qualify as "pain", but it was annoying. On the other hand, aside from his scuffling around on the floor with her paw and part of her foreleg, he wasn't really make much noise. Well, not that the other kids would notice. Mittere's awareness was a bit more fine-tuned than most.

So she allowed him to "fight" her paw, and even obligingly moved it near and far, tempting him to pounce on it. There were worse things he could spend his naptime doing, she knew.

At least he'd stopped talking for the time being. And really, that was her goal. Keep him quiet, let the rest sleep. Fewer headaches for her.  

[Bronze Coffee]

Somehow he felt like he was being teased. ...Or something. He glared at her and backed himself up before charging and headbutting her side, growling louder, swiping at her side. Grunting a bit, he literally climbed on her and jumped a few times. "Now I have you!" He practically yelled it and looked over to his litter mates, seeing a few of them twitch but none of them woke up. His eyes narrowed at that and he snorted before going to put his front paws on her head.

"Mother," he murmured, thinking about something. "....There's a lot of smells in this den that aren't familiar. Why? Who are they?" He leaned forward, looking down at her in an upside down kind of way with a little accusing look on his face. These smells bothered him. Some were faint, some not so faint, but they didn't smell right.  

[mouselet]

She wasn't doing much with Nacht until he yelled and nearly woke the rest of the litter up. At that point the pink lioness snarled softly. Not much, true, but enough to make it clear to the boy that he should behave, else he'd be in actual trouble.

Of course he kept talking, but at least his volume was quieter. On the other hand...why did children ask so many questions? They couldn't possibly know everything, no matter how hard they tried. But if she didn't answer at all, he'd keep asking. And if she did answer, then he'd ask her questions about the answer. It was a losing proposition regardless.

"Those are your siblings. And your nephews," Mittere answered shortly and quietly.  

[Bronze Coffee]

The snarl didn't go unnoticed, which is why he did speak quieter when he asked his question. Nacht might be loud, but he wasn't stupid. He knew when mother-dearest was serious. She answered his question, at least, and he rolled off of her to the side and landed on his paws, circling around to the front of her again and just kind of plopped against her.

Siblings and nephews. Wait. "No nieces?" He looked up at her from his spot against her stomach, eyes narrowing in a squint instead of a glare this time. "Why couldn't you have more boys? There are too many boys and my brother can't keep up with me." Nacht wasn't sure if that was true or not, but it sounded like it was. Snorting a bit more, he tucked his paws under him and waited for the answers.  

[mouselet]

At least he was behaving. There were still small blessings in the world. Thank the gods. Though of course he was still asking questions, and questions that had no real answer anyway. Just great.

"The gods only know why some children are born male and and others female," she told Nacht, refusing to play some game trying to explain that Tarafa's bloodline seemed to throw more males and her own more females. He probably wasn't old enough for that kind of discussion anyway.

"But if you're smart, you'll realize that your sisters are far more dangerous than any additional brothers would be." Her lips curled faintly in a smile as she remembered her own childhood. She'd been one of two girls in a litter of five, and had always been the winner in any contest. None of her brothers had been able to beat her, though Facio had tried repeatedly. It was a shame that all their other siblings had died young, but that was a fact of life, especially in a pride as fierce as the one they'd been born into.  

[Bronze Coffee]

"That may be, but I don't want to always wrestle with girls. They only play so much and I want to play more." He wasn't whining. At least.. not quite yet. Nacht's voice did take on a higher pitch at the end that was close to a whine, but he didn't whine so there. Turning his head to his mother's stomach, he yawned against her and just sighed a little more. Maybe he should nap. She was going to nap. If he stayed here, he could wake up when she did.

His eyes drooped after a minute and he just snorted. Slowly, he just leaned against her again and let his tail curl around him, seeming very much like he'd settled on it. Nacht was going to nap right here and if she moved he would move with her, simple as that.

"....Don't move," he whispered, resting his head on her stomach, eyes finally fully closed. She was warm and that was good, and he had a heartbeat to listen to, which was also good. If she did move away, he was more than likely just going to flop over and stay asleep.  

[mouselet]

There were several acidic retorts that sprang to mind at that foolish comment about girls, but Mittere swallowed them as she didn't want to wake the rest of the den in her anger.

In the time it took the lioness to get her temper under control, the cub had curled up at her side and appeared to have fallen asleep. Well, at least some good had come out of this. Mittere stopped herself from sighing aloud in relieved exasperation.

Well, as long as they were all asleep for the moment, she might as well follow suit. The adult arranged herself with an eye for comfort and the other for not disturbing the boy leaning against her. Then she allowed her eyes to drift closed.

Just waiting for the next incident, whatever that might be.