The Blessed Child || drabble
Screaming. He woke up to screaming again and couldn’t quite remember why at first. Why was someone screaming in this place? This place with high walls and guards and more safety than he had ever before known, with food on the tables and solid roofs that wouldn’t cave in from too much snow fall. Why would someone scream such bloody murder in a place like this? He was so tired he couldn’t place it at first. He hadn’t been asleep for more than a few seconds, it felt like, though in reality he had passed out a few hours before; but not nearly enough.
This place was dangerous for the likes of him, especially when the queen herself knew he was of an enemy race. And then he remembered why he was here.
He was groggy until that realization hit and then he was wide awake again despite the heavy bags under his eyes. It had been like this for days but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but that wailing scream, that frightened cry that he desperately needed to get to, to soothe.
He threw back the covers of the room that was too warm and ran the second his feet hit the floor. He bolted in to the next room and to the bedside within. A moment later, he was scooping the screaming child in to his arms, holding him while he thrashed and kicked and clawed at him, crying so hard his nose ran and his eyes were swollen already. The words he was yelling were indiscernible, either because he was babbling with words slurred together in his agony or because Leis was so exhausted from night after night, hour after hour of this that the words didn’t register as a language he knew at all.
He held and rocked the child, cooing and purring at him, though the child could not imitate them back to him. He rubbed his back and knew he would just have to wait out the nightmare. “Baby, it’s ok,” he murmured. “I’m here. You’re safe. It’s alright. It’s me, it’s your Leis. I’ve got you.”
The boy’s parents were dead not five days before and it had been like this ever since. He had had to fight to be able to stay here with the boy he loved so dearly, but no one else wanted to deal with the boy’s nightmares and frightened episodes and begging to see his mother. Leis was beyond exhausted, but this child was alone. His grandmother, though kind and nurturing, would not run to his side every time. She did not seem to understand that strength did not always mean that no emotions were felt. She and the rest of Asgard were blind to the fact that warriors felt the pain of loss and the fear of death, sometimes more strongly than most. And above all, he was a child whose father had been stolen from him and whose mother had abandoned him. He needed someone to coddle and care for him and Leis would be that person as long as he could be.
Baldr had been his best friend and Nanna his best friend’s wife. They were family and now they were gone, just like Finna and his son were gone. All that remained of them was this frightened, crying child in his arms. And while some might call that a tragedy, to Leis it was a blessing. Their deaths were a bitter, ashen taste in his mouth, but this boy….
This beautiful, blonde haired, blue-eyed child who was lashing out and acting out and screaming through all hours for days and nights on end was a blessing. Leis was robbed of his son and Forseti was robbed of his parents. Though not ideal and though Leis could not always be here for him because of the political situations between their realms, he was given this child to care for as best he could.
Leis could not deny that he loved him more than he had ever expected to love a child.
After nearly an hour had passed, Forseti calmed and rested, whimpering, in Leis’ arms. He rubbed his back still and rocked him and hushed him, though he was falling asleep with Seti in his arms. He knew he could not even manage to carry Seti back to his own room with him, as he was far too weary, so instead he crawled in to bed with the boy. He was almost too big for the child’s bed. He laid on his back, Seti curled up on his chest, Leis’ arms protective around him.
"I’ve got you, baby," he murmured, his eyes too heavy to stay open. They stung and he felt sleep tugging at him, but he couldn’t rest yet. Not until he knew Seti was calm and not panicked. He needed the boy to feel safe. "It’s ok. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere, ok?"
Finally, a single word made it through his muddled mind when the child spoke it. “Promise…?” It was accented with child-speak, but he understood it regardless.
"Yeah," he whispered back. "I promise. I love you, Forseti. Ok? So I’m staying right here. I’ll protect you."
Seti nodded. “Love you too….” he murmured.
Tired as he was, Leis still managed to smile. Even through this physical torture, he couldn’t help it. Forseti was a blessing. This boy was a gift that he never should have been given and he would do anything he could to help him. He had to.
No matter the situation, one thing about Leis would never change; nothing would ever come before his family.
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