Raithe Quest

Raithe Quest 11 - Companion 6 - Chester & Farrah (Part 6 End)- Journeys End

"Hey there~ Hi~" Chester cooed in a higher, yet quieter voice. He was mostly just trying to make sounds for the little bundled up Oni baby girl he was holding in his arms. The baby squealed, then laughed as Chester kissed her on the forehead. As Daemara stared at him he idly offered his finger for the baby to grab. She was not even a year old, but the grip was a bit much. He began to sweat a little as he looked up to address the mother.
"Yes, Dae?"

She looked at him for a moment, then at the girl. She reluctantly did something she told him quite insistently that she was not going to do except for feeding and pried the little clamp-like hand off Chester's nearly bent finger to hold her near her breast. She looked up at him again after checking on her to see him ringing out his hand.
"At least complain a little bit..." She grumbled.

"There's nothing to complain about. She doesn't know her own strength yet." Chester remarked, watching with a wide smile as Dae affectionately held her baby for a few seconds before Farrah finally showed up at her side for another hand off. Farrah looked the baby over as Daemara and Chester continued to talk.

"Not what I'm talking about." Her pinkish cheeks darkened as she explained.
"The deal was, I'm not gonna take a part in taking care of the kid except to feed her enough to get strong, since you're the one that knocked me up. I'm saying you should complain a bit, since Oni are headaches at all ages. Wondering if you're maybe just set in your ways as a pushover in some respects." She sighed, scratching her head.

Chester cocked his head to one side. "Sorry?"

"I said you should compl-"

"No. The other thing?"

"A pushover?" Dae clarified. Chester nodded and moved over to Farrah's side.

"I never thought differently. I don't necessarily think it's Farrah's responsibility so I take up most of the work that I can actually do." He spoke with stern authority, since he was speaking with fact.
"I understand the mother doesn't want to do any work... It's unfortunate but just because one parent isn't pulling their weight doesn't mean that little Dae doesn't still need two parents worth of the care. I'm not thinking about it as a separation of chores. This is our little girl, she has things she needs OTHER than feeding and if she doesn't get them then she'll be worse off." Daemara gulped, shrinking a little under the speech. She continued to shrink in posture as he went on.
"Full-grown adults don't just grow like trees... You do have to water them a bit. Little Dae isn't going to miss anything because she's missing one half of what she should have. Furthermore-"

"That- that's not how Oni work!" She argued weakly.
"We do grow up like trees! She'll be fine without most of the stuff she has. Also... Also! Oni children don't even take names until they hit puberty and we give ourselves one, so I thought I told you to stop calling her that, since it's an awful lot like a name."

Chester sighed. "You were very intent that you were going to be hands off."

"Because I thought it'd be a human! Giving me an Oni is freaking UNEXPECTED! It's a huge, god damn hassle! I can't just leave this one alone and come back for birthdays, they need actual attention and feeding from me or she'll be weak." Her shoulders slumped.
"The fact that you knocked me up is one thing. The fact that it's an Oni..." Her pink cheeks darkened in hue a little more.

"Hmm?" Chester had already moved over to Farrah's side to pay attention to Little Dae. He was waiting for her to be done speaking while idly making noises and faces at her. Daemara felt strange and eyed her baby a bit jealously before correcting herself with a huff.

"You typically have to have a strong partner. Really strong. For perspective, I've made dragons. That means the dragons I knocked up and got knocked up by weren't as strong as you."