Thorn in his Side

The Single Father Life of Mard Geer

Mard started coming out of his dreamless sleep, feeling a bit out of it and certain that his blanket was heavier than he remembered. Rosebud was on her last day of the S-Class trials and he couldn't wait to have her home. Sleeping alone was annoying and pillows did not compensate for the warm chest of his wife.

He cracked open an eye and saw nothing but wild dark plum hair, he tried to move his arm, but it was pinned under a small warm body. Mard tried his other arm but that was equally pinned, and he smiled, realizing what was going on.

His demonlings had decided to keep daddy company.

Carefully he slipped his arm out from under one of his kids and moved Spawnling's mess of hair from his face. Mard opened his mind listening to his kids' dreams and smiled at the little bit of innocence they had.

Except Spawnling, she was dreaming of crushing Starlight's dolls. Starlight was having a tea party with colorful stuffed animals and Ram was dreaming in nothing special just blurred colors. Even in their dreams his precious three showed their unique personalities.

Mard looked up at the plain white ceiling, this wasn't a normal way to wake up. Usually he would wake up with Rosebud as she was being attacked by an eager Ram who would demand pancakes. Starlight would then enter the room and jump on his side of the bed and give him "happy morning" kisses. After a while and in the kitchen, Spawnling would make her appearance, disheveled and glaring at a lack of coffee in her Spawnling's Coffee cup.

Which Spawnling got the decaf, but she never needed to know that. Rosebud insisted that that her little heart did not need the stimulate. Mard agreed because when Spawnling was wide awake, she was enough of a handful.

Mard slowly moved, gently rolling Spawnling off the right side of upper body and picking up Starlight from his legs. As he tried to navigate around his demonlings on the light blue sheets, he heard a small whine. He paused and looked at Starlight who managed to grab his wrist, her ebony eyes half open and a bit of dried droll out the corner of her mouth.

"Go back to sleep," he whispered, and she let go of him to roll over to her back and hit her head against Ram's foot. Starlight pushed it and Ram giggled as he kicked her again with his green covered dinosaur foot.

Mard rolled his eyes and picked up Starlight, moving her to the center of the bed and not forgetting her beloved fire dragon plushie. She'd had that thing since the twins were born. Originally Natsu meant it for Ram but Starlight was quick to take it and her brother never complained.

He made his way into the bathroom and looked at himself. His hair was up at all kinds of odd angles, he had dark circles under his eyes and as he thought about his pajama pants, he realized he had worn them for the last two days. Mard bowed his head and sighed, he'd been so busy keeping up with the demonlings he forgot to at least try and be presentable. Rosebud would laugh at him.

He'd deserve it and he knew that.

He went through his morning routine, making sure to let the conditioner sit in his hair a little longer to work out the tangles that had to be there. Without Rosebud to braid his hair it was a wreck. As Mard enjoyed the hot shower, he realized just how much he missed his wife.

It wasn't just because he missed making love to her, but all the little things she did. How she'd handle the kids before coffee and after coffee. Her breakfasts, lunches, dinners, the way she cuddled during a movie, her cleaning routine...

Mard's eyes went wide as he hurried through his shower. He had barely done any cleaning the last two days and his Queen would kick him if she came home to a messy house. How had he let things get so out of control? How was he failing at this single dad thing?