"Why is she so small?" Arthur frowned at his wriggling niece inside the portable bassinet.
Kneeling on the fluffy rug in front of the bassinet, big uncle Arthur tilted his head here and there to make sense of the small creature whose eyes were blinking dazedly at him. It was his third time seeing Ashley's second daughter, but the little fairy was still as small as he last remembered. Her hair was nothing but a tuft of dark red grass, and she looked as if she could break by nothing but a loud voice.
Ashey rolled her eyes at the sacred fascination amid fear within her cousin's eyes. "She's a baby, Arty."
"Yeah, but...Sammy wasn't this small..."
"Really?" the big sister, on her way to be a second grader soon, perked up from the couch. "I'm bigger than lil sister?"
"Yeah, you were..." Arthur looked at his arm and put his index finger halfway across his upper arm. "This big?"
The baby, however, only reached the crook of his elbow if they stretched her little legs. Arthur would be able to hold her with one arm--if he were courageous enough.
"That's because Dannielle is a premature baby," Shirley chuckled while fixing the blanket that her daughter kicked to the side.
It wasn't by much, but still almost three weeks earlier. She didn't need to spend more than three days in NICU, but Arthur was right about the baby being rather small.
"She's just normal and perfect," Ashley said with a huff, ruffling her eldest's strawberry hair with a grin across her face. "Just like Sammy was big and perfect."
"Because Sammy is a big sister," Samantha nodded proudly, patting her chest with a smug expression that was basically a copy of her alpha mother.
Chuckling as Ashley lifted Samantha high in the air like presenting the next heir to the whole jungle, Shirley glanced at Arthur and smiled mischievously. "Do you want to try carrying her, Arthur?"
"W-what?" Arthur choked on his honey lime tea, brown eyes wide open in horror. "Who? Me?"
"You're the only one called Arthur here, Uncle," Samantha, back on the ground, relayed what her mother whispered to her.
"I know that," Arthur whispered, biting his lower lip as he tried to make sense of the fragile little thing inside the bassinet. "But, I mean...she's so small..."
"We've been through this conversation five times already," their grandmother laughed from the armchair.
"Yeah, just try it, Arty," Ashley smacked her cousin's broad back. "All you have to do is be careful with her head."
That wasn't helpful?! Why did babies build as if they had a destruction button in their bodies?!
"W-what if I hurt her?" Arthur stammered, gripping the railing of the portable bassinet so tightly it swayed a little.
The curious little creature shifted her blurry gaze toward the giant who was afraid of her, and the deep brown eyes caught it. For a few quite seconds, they were locked in a staring contest.
"We'll watch you carefully," Ashley patted her cousin's shoulder, grinning widely. "Come on, just a few seconds."
"You might have your own one day, so just treat it as training," their grandmother threw in more encouragement, ignorant of her grandson's plight.
Arthur could only laugh nervously. "You sure about that?"
Seeing the people he ended up having a crush on, Arthur had a feeling he might never find anyone.
No--no! He wasn't falling in love! It was just admiration. Admiration. Let's repeat it again. Ad-mi-ra-ti-on.
Arthur straightened his back--and his mind--before taking a deep breath. "Phew...okay," he clapped his hand and spread his arms in front of him. "Bring it on!"
"Is my daughter a bull or something?" Ashley rolled her eyes while her wife giggled on the other side of the bassinet. She picked her youngest up, freeing the protesting baby from her soft blanket, and proceeded to give a short instruction to the clueless uncle. "Here, crook your arms like so--right, I'll put her in your arm--just hold the back of her head with your palm."
Samantha giggled and snuggled to her stepmother, who was recording the funny transfer with a phone, and watched it through the screen.
Arthur was stiff as a board as the small, soft, warm human being was placed on his arms. He carefully used his palm as a pillow to support the little neck, gulping audibly. He didn't even dare to stand up--if an accident occurred and he did drop the baby, it would be less fatal from a kneeling position, right?
"Oh, my God..." Arthur screamed in a whisper. "My hand is bigger than her head."
Little Danielle wriggled when she felt the tensed, hard muscle of her uncle's arms. Arthur was staring at her with violently shaking eyes, unsure of what to do. She was wriggling with all her limbs--even her head kept moving!
When the other was laughing amid Arthur's fluster, the baby seemed to find her own comfort and finally stopped wriggling, just staring at the giant with warm chocolate eyes; familiar but also not at the same time. She had yet to register the uncle who had only visited her three times, but he was warm enough, like her big mama.
When the baby finally calmed down, Arthur spent a whole minute just staring at her with no sound, as if he expected the little creature to throw a tantrum. When the coast seemed clear, he lifted his head, looking blankly at the spectators. "W-what now? Should I...should I rock her?"
Ashley pressed her lips to stifle a laugh and nodded lightly. "Sure, just a little bit."
Swallowing hard, Arthur started to sway left and right. He had read somewhere that babies shouldn't receive too much shock or vibration, so he was moving so slowly and carefully that he ended up looking like a silly wind-up toy.
"Uncle, you look so weird!" Samantha did not give her uncle the grace of ignorance and laughed until she rolled around on the rug.
"Sush, you lil demon!" Arthur hissed, receiving a stern warning from his grandmother.
"Arthur..."
"Oops," Arthur pressed his lips and decided to focus on his little niece instead. "Wow, she's so light."
She wasn't even as heavy as his guitar! Maybe half a guitar? Arthur reckoned he could carry Little Danielle around for an hour without breaking a sweat. As long as she didn't wriggle around all of a sudden, of course.
"See? It's not that bad," Ashley scoffed.
Well, the fear was always of the unknown. Arthur didn't spend any time carrying Samantha because Ashley was a bit--a lot, actually--protective at that time, and he was also busy with his preparation for his study. This was his first time with a baby, so he would naturally feel scared.
After experiencing it, her fear dissipated by itself. He was still rather stiff, still afraid of dropping her, but he dared himself to stroke the short reddish hair with his thumb. They were soft but also prickly; her cheeks were pink and almost translucent. So fragile and beautiful.
Baby...
What would his baby look like, Arthur wondered. Would they had brown hair and chocolate eyes like him? He didn't really like his color combination, though. Black hair might be good--his family didn't have that. Black hair and green eyes...
"How about it? Don't you want one now?" suddenly, his grandfather asked, bringing a kettle of newly brewed tea.
"I did," Arthur replied gloomily, closing his eyes to chase away the image of a baby boy with spiky black hair and brownish green eyes. His mood plummeted, he added with a grumble. "Until you say something, Grandpa."
"You rascal!" the grandfather hissed. "Are you still in your rebellious phase at your age?"
"I didn't even have any rebellious phase," Arthur scoffed. He shifted his gaze to the teeny tiny girl in his arms and pursed his lips. "Right? Uncle was to~tally a good, obedient boy, Danny."
The old man glared at him in disbelief. "Even though you stole my instrument?"
Arthur tilted his head. "Huh? I thought that was my inheritance?"
"Rascal!"
Arthur gasped and covered the baby's ear. "Grandpa! What if Little Danny hears it?"
"You--"
"Aaah!"
Arthur froze. The grandfather froze. In fact, everyone froze. Arthur blinked and looked down at his niece, who was opening her mouth wide as if yawning.
"Aaah!" she let out a small, adorable sound, before burping and giggling soundlessly. Her eyes crinkling and her cheeks were the color of her older sister's hair.
Arthur gasped, eyes widened as he looked at the equally startled peole on the couch. "She's smiling! She's smiling!"
"I wanna see! I wanna see!" Samantha jumped off the couch and demanded her little sister back.
The situation turned chaotic as Samantha pulled on her uncle's arm, and Ashley had to take the giggling baby from her panicking uncle. Everyone was trying to make Little Danielle laugh again, because Shirley didn't have time to record it before.
"She must loved her time with Uncle Arthur," the only male alpha in the house said smugly.
"Look at this brat," Ashley rolled her eyes. "You were trembling and all 'what if I hurt her? What if I hurt her?' just before."
Arthur shrugged. "People evolve, you know."
"Seems like you won't have to worry when you have your own," Shirley laughed with a pair of teasing, half-moon eyes.
"Haha..."
Arthur laughed awkwardly, suppressing the twisting feeling in his stomach. He had been telling himself that it was nothing more than admiration, but...
What kind of admiration resulted in imagining a future child with that person?
Argh! Arthur wanted to run around the hill twice just to clear his mind. But it would be so weird doing that out of nowhere, right? In the end, he just sighed and lay down on the rug while the others gushed around Little Danielle.
Perhaps because people were suddenly crowding around her, the baby felt uncomfortable and cried loudly. Shirley ended up taking her baby upstairs with Samantha tailing them, while Ashley and their grandfather went to the kitchen to make baby milk.
The living room became quiet as only Arthur and his grandmother were left lounging there. Lifting the cup of herb tea her husband brewed, she sipped the warm liquid while observing her sprawled grandson.
"How are you, Arthur?"
"Back to my goal weight," Arthur patted his re-chiseled abs and propped himself on his elbows so he could look at his grandmother. "Does your knee still hurt, Grandma?"
"It'll get better in the spring," his grandmother smiled. "But what about you?"
Arthur raised his brows. "Me?"
The gentle but sharp hazel eyes looked at Arthur. "You look rather off today, my dear."
Arthur flinched and pushed himself up to a sitting position, blinking at his grandmother. She looked as gentle as always, with a soft smile that always warmed his heart. But her stern gaze told Arthur that he should not weasle his way out of this.
"Do you not like it when your cousin and grandfather tease you about having a child on your own?"