His eyes slowly opened, the light that hit them paining him.
Looking up, he noticed an unfamiliar face looking down at him, the thin eyebrows being pressured into sad arches by an emotion he would later learn to recognize as worry.
He tilted his head towards the soft, gentle caressing motions being made on the side of his face as a distinct scent wafted through his nostrils and comforted him. Lolling his tiny head to the other side, he noticed the infinitely larger hand slowly reaching towards his, and when the two hands made contact, a warmth flooded through his tiny body and heated him to the core.
It was a warmth unlike any other he had ever experienced in his remarkably short life; it was more comforting than that of the other with the same green eyes, and it was infinitesimally more genuine and comforting than that of the one who had only ever held him to feed him.
It was unlike anything else, this...loving warmth.
Suddenly yearning to feel it more, he whimpered and squirmed within his plush confinement, trying desperately to reach the warmth. His futile struggles were met with a soft, soothing sound, a sound that he did not comprehend. Something about this...this...sound...relaxed him, and the hand stroking the tuft of hair at the top of his head left him in the most tranquil state he had ever been in.
Just as he was about to resume his struggle towards the warmth, the arms he was enveloped in suddenly lifted him up just a bit higher and pressed him into the other's chest, the loving warmth radiating from it wrapping him up and carrying him over into a state of perfect peace. Leaning his head more into the other's chest, he felt a soft thumping through the fabric that acted as a barrier between the two's bare skin. The metronomic beating seemed to call out to him, beckoning him towards sleep.
There was something about this person, whoever he was, that comforted him; everything from his scent to the sounds that left his mouth to his gentle touch to even the beat of his heart made him so...trustable. This...warmth...(which he would later go on to recognize as something called love) of the other's made him feel something he had never felt before. This...other...was unlike anyone he had ever encountered before. There was something about the way he held him, something about the way he spoke, that differentiated him from the rest. Such gentle mannerisms of being handled were new to him, and it seemed as if that was the only way that this other knew how to handle him.
He wanted to stay with this other and his loving warmth forever.
Just as the soothing rhythm of the other's heartbeat was beginning to lull him to sleep, he felt a soft, smooth surface press itself against the skin of his forehead briefly. He did not comprehend the gesture whatsoever, but, for some reason, he found it rather pleasurable. Something trickled down off the other's face and onto his, and the other reached over quickly to wipe the foreign liquid off his face. The tender touch of this nameless person's hands soothed him unlike anything else ever had, and the gentle rocking motions that followed only pushed him closer and closer to the brink of the abyss of sleep.
Just before his first-ever peaceful sleep stole over him, one arm slipped out from its grip on him for a few brief seconds and then returned to its original position, pressing him against the other's now bare chest. Now he was truly in his own paradise- that same smell was stronger, the rhythmic thumping was louder, and the warmth he yearned so desperately for was more intense than ever.
As a large hand came up next to him and began to unravel the blanket he was bundled up inside of, he began to squirm towards the source of the thumping noise, restless whimpers leaving his mouth in the process. Just as he was finally beginning to near it, he was stripped of the final layer between their bare flesh, and upon feeling the warmer-than-warm flesh of this beloved other's against his own, he returned to his previous state of blissful placidity.
He molded into the other's body, closing his eyes and settling in the secure, loving arms wrapped around him. His ear hovered directly over the source of the thumping, and the chill he had first felt when he was stripped of the layer between them had now completely disappeared, driven away by the loving warmth of the other.
He let out a contented sigh as he melted into the bare chest he rested on, the soft, smooth surface he had felt on his forehead not too long ago now finding its way back to that spot.
There was a soft murmuring in his ear, almost musical in nature. It calmed him and called out to him, beckoning him towards sleep.
Slowly, he began to slip into the inky, serene darkness of his first rest in loving arms, and within a few minutes, he was fast asleep in the arms of the first person he would ever truly and unconditionally love.
At that moment, he and his father were one.
End
(Picture credits to the wonderful artist on Instagram who drew it. It's so damn cute!)
YOU ARE READING
The Other || Wattys 2016
Fanfiction"It was unlike anything else he had ever felt, this...loving warmth." One shot. - o1
