Litvir wasn’t supposed to be there. The first two nights, only one person was supposed to be with the baby, and that was their mum. Ever since baby Retvik had hatched, they had been gently held by Gath, and the two of them had been in a small room together. Gath was currently sleeping on a temporary bed, the baby was sleeping in a small basket that rested on Gath’s chest. Apparently Relkir was staying with the grandparents, making preparations for the baby to be taken home in the next few days. Litvir though had been hanging around, watching in silence.
They hadn’t come close though. Gath and the baby had been asleep for three hours now. And it had taken Litvir three hours to slowly come close enough to actually see the baby.
Really, Litvir was a bit annoyed at themselves. They had no idea how babies worked, and they should have at least asked old mama Elkay beforehand. Mostly, Litvir had no idea how well developed freshly hatched Rethans were. While baby Retvik’s plating was still a bit soft, they were basically just a very, very tiny Rethan who could drag themselves around and crawl a bit, but couldn’t walk yet. The only noticeable thing was that baby Retvik didn’t have proper teeth, they instead had little nubs which couldn’t bite anything.
What surprised Litvir more though was that baby Retvik looked nothing like mama Gath. They looked exactly like an even tinier Relkir, but they had red eyes instead of blue. Relkir had told Litvir a long time ago that they had blue eyes because of a “genetic fluke” but they had expected to carry that fluke on to baby Retvik as well. But it seemed that mixing Relkir’s genetics with Gath’s genetics had somehow fixed the blue eye problem.
The more confusing thing was that baby Retvik had a long, sharp head strip the same way Litvir did, but already, it was smaller. Litvir wondered if it was because baby Retvik was a real baby. Their plating was still soft, and they had come out of a normal egg, which had caused the sharp head strip to break away somewhat. Litvir had been forcibly grown up into a teenager before they could have used their head strip to break something, so their head strip was just as hard as the rest of their plating.
Litvir watched the baby some more. It had woken up and was moving around. It was wriggly. It seemed uncomfortable. After a few moments of just watching, Litvir made themselves no longer invisible, then slowly approached. The baby seemed to notice Litvir approaching, and they made a little gurgling sound, waving their arms around, before starting to whimper.
“Are… are you…” Litvir paused. They remembered that the baby couldn’t speak. But Litvir had a secret weapon. They had never tried telepathy on a baby before, but perhaps they could work out what the baby wanted?
Closing their eyes, Litvir put their hand over the baby. Their thoughts made no sense what so ever, because they were a baby and were still learning what thoughts were, but Litvir could definitely pick up feelings. And they quickly realised their little sibling was hungry.
Litvir pulled back, rubbed their eyes, then looked around the room. There was a small table by the bed, and it had several jars on it. Those jars, Litvir knew they were baby food, but they had never actually tasted it or eaten it themselves, despite being a baby. Either way, Litvir brought a jar over, then thought to themselves, trying to remember how mama Gath had fed the baby.
Litvir did eventually work it out. They scooped up some baby food, which was an odd, loose paste, with their finger, then held their finger near the baby’s head. But Litvir did pause for a moment, just because of how tiny their little sibling was. The same size as Litvir’s hand. Miniscule.
Baby Retvik looked up at Litvir, not quite knowing who they were at first, having forgotten that Litvir was there. But they quickly realised that Litvir wasn’t a bad thing, and they turned over, towards the food. After some brief hesitation, they started licking up the food on Litvir’s finger, and before long, it was all gone. Litvir considered getting more food, but a very quick mind-read suggested that Retvik was full and satisfied. Retvik seemed to appreciate Litvir helping them, and they waved and smiled a bit.
Realising they had done good, Litvir smiled and waved back at the baby. Retvik waved some more, then giggled, seeming to fully accept Litvir’s presence.
“You are very small…” Litvir muttered.
Retvik responded with a giggle.
“You are also my little sibling. I am only a year and a half older than you. But I am your big sibling.”
Litvir could tell that Retvik didn’t know what they were saying, but the baby enjoyed being spoken to. It made them happy. So Litvir continued.
“I want to make a promise to you. I already protect everyone. It is my job. Your big sibling is a deity after all. And… that means… one day, you will die, and I will not. But…”
Litvir sniffed, then held their finger close to Retvik. Retvik very loosely grabbed Litvir’s finger.
“We will be best siblings. I promise I will protect you forever, little sibling. I will protect you more than anyone else. I will make you happy and safe. And I hope that you will let me be your friend.”
The baby didn’t understand, but they grabbed Litvir’s finger some more and giggled. However, before they could do anything else, they let go, stretched out their arms and let out a very big yawn.
“You are sleepy now. I will let you sleep with mama. But I will be here, protecting you. Promise. I love you, little sibling.”
Retvik giggled one last time, then yawned some more and curled up into a ball. Within a few moments, they had already fallen back to sleep.
Litvir smiled to themselves, then stepped back and turned themselves invisible, as to not disturb their sleeping sibling.