Summer Air

The window to Tahir and Alexis's room was opened, letting in some much needed fresh air. Things smelled so different in modern days than they did back in the 13th century. In most ways, this was a very good thing. But something Tahir still wasn't used to how every little thing was perfume scented, especially when it came to babies. Baby powder, baby wipes, even the diapers smelled like little perfumed babies. It was strange. And Tahir didn't like it too much, the oversaturated baby product fragrance gave him a headache.

The night was warm and the sky was clear, dotted with balls of flaming gas and lifeless rocks shimmering as the only source of light.

It was far too lovely of a night to stay inside, so Tahir dressed up his chubby little two year old and propped the boy up on his shoulders. Jem, as always, grabbed tightly onto his daddy's thick black hair. The man didn't mind at all, it wasn't like Jem was able to hurt him.

He whistled a tune as he strode down the hallway, the stairs, and out to the garden.

Aeker sat out in the garden idly flicking through an old tomb he had found in the libraries collection.

It was one of those rare nights where Aodh and Darragh had gone out together giving him some time to himself.

Honestly he didn't know what to do with himself when they weren't around.

Tahir caught Aeker's scent before his eyes were able to seek the man out.

Despite the fact that Aeker was his son's uncle, he really didn't know anything about the other vampire. He seemed to be much less outgoing than Alexis was, that much was obvious.

Jem gave out a happy noise when he spotted the crimson eyed vampire, so Tahir decided to approach.

The Persian man didn't say anything, he just nodded his head in greeting. Jem, however, was much more chatty. He reached out towards Aeker with chubby little grabby hands.

Jem had been babysat by Aeker and Aodh a couple of times when Tahir and Alexis wanted to go out together on a date night, so the little boy knew Aeker better than Tahir did.

Aeker looked up from his book as the sound of heavy footed steps came from behind him.

He gave the man a soft smile from his seated position. He did regret not getting to know Alexis' mate better, after all they were family now.

"Good evening Tahir. May I?"

He asked as Jem reached out toward him, he loved children and had grown quite fond of the small hybrid, Jem had an incredibly sweet nature and rarely fussed.

The large man pulled Jem from his shoulders. His hands were so big that they easily held all the way around the baby, even though Jem was 2 years old now. Most wouldn't be able to fit their hands around a toddler's stomach like that, especially since Jem had a good amount of baby fat on him.

Jem happily kicked his legs and said something in his baby jibberish.

"Of course." The lycan said in a low voice in response to Aeker's question, holding Jem out to the vampire.

It still wasn't 100% known how being a hybrid was affecting Jem, but to Tahir it seemed the boy was more like himself than his mother. That's what Alexis had hoped for, and she too had noticed that Jem behaved more like a pup than a vamp.

The boy had already taken his first steps, but he seemed to prefer crawling on all fours with his bum raised in the hair, not bothering to use his knees. He was faster when he used his feet to crawl. It did make him look silly though, but babies could get away with that.

He also seemed to have taken a liking to raw meat, it got to the point where instead of giving Jem a toy to try and cheer him up if he was fussy, Tahir would give him a steak to maul and suck on.

A few baby teeth had come in, and there were no fangs like there might have been on a vampire.

He did inherit his mother's golden eyes, and sometimes Tahir wondered if he only liked the raw meat because it allowed him to suck out the blood, like a vampire would prefer.

But Tahir doubted it. He and Aodh had taken Jem out into sunlight for the first time, and the boy had loved it. Once they were certain that it was harmless to the little hybrid, Tahir allowed Jem to roam around and see what the garden looked like when the sun was out.

Aodh had helped take pictures of the happy day Jem had in the sun, as Tahir was still very useless with modern technology. He'd wished more than anything that Alexis had been able to witness it for herself, in person, but the photographs were the next best thing.

Once in Aeker's arms, Jem placed his hands on the vampire's face. The toddlers knuckles looked like dimples. He gently pat the man's cheeks and then smooshed, trying to make Aeker have a silly face. He giggled, very entertained at what he was doing.