Page 92 of Culture and Curiosities
He squealed and sucked and wiggled as they raced around the tub, and seemed to like it best when they rose up to the top of the bubbles before diving deep again. He would make an excited noise and push his hands into the bubbles to search for his creatures, all while making waves in the water from his movements.
It reminded me of the hurricane images I had seen on their news, so I was glad his excitement was contained to a small pool of water. Otherwise it would have gone everywhere, even without the appropriate spells to keep the room dry.
“Oh no, is he lost at sea?” I wasn’t sure what kind of game we should be playing with the toys, but it seemed like a reasonable option when one interesting animal went under the water. Its teeth indicated predator but Wren was still too distracted for any helpful words to come through our bond.
It seemed to be something called a shark, but from the knowledge the spell had given me from Wren, there were a variety of creatures that matched the toy. Why their world had so many predators I didn’t understand.
How had the people of Earth survived?
My questions had to wait, though, because games were much more interesting to my adorable mate. He seemed to have endless excitement for his toys, and if not for the spell, his water would have gone cold long before he was ready to be done.
Eventually even swimming tentacle creatures could not stop his yawns or the way his brain seemed to have decided it was done for the day. His mind was back to being filled with hums and random images from children’s cartoons and there was very little that was clear or grown-up.
Occasionally the tentacle creature seemed to need a human for romance because Wren’s mind was sorting through his toys for something called a Ken doll, but he had left that in Texas based on his frustration.
But when the sexual activity of monsters became his primary thoughts, I decided he was done with bathtime.
“Are you ready for a bottle?” Taking the assumptive role, I reached for a washcloth and performed a quick wipe down of my boy before unplugging the tub.
He liked to have a shower in the morning, so I wasn’t worried about actually cleaning him too much as I let the bubbles deflate and the water cool. “I think cuddles and cartoons may have been next on our plan.”
He would’ve needed to use words to actually argue with me, so all he gave me were pouts and sighs as the water escaped andI rinsed off his toys. He could’ve performed the fit I had seen others do, but thankfully he was too tired for that and seemed to want to cuddle.
That did not mean he had any desire to actually be helpful, though.
No, my mate was passive and pouting around his binkie as I dried him off and led him toward the bed. Talking about his toys and random subjects kept his attention from what I was doing until I had pajamas and what they called a diaper beside him.
The question mark images popped up again and he watched it closely, but nothing negative came through in his limited thoughts or feelings. “They are not hard to create, sweet boy.”
Or clean…which would come in handy on our trip.
“We are going to have to sit down with a mage who has children and ask what spells they use on a regular basis.” Many could also be adapted so that dragons with their innate magic could activate them, so I wasn’t sure how none had been passed down.
Wren giggled, sending me images of diapers with patterns on them and his regular toys bouncing around the floor.
Thankfully, he did not expect the same movements from his grown-up toys.
“Yes, we’ll find other ways to have fun and play.” Hmm. “Should diapers have pictures on them?”
His mind had supplied thoughts on diapers very early in our bonding but specific patterns had not been something he’d been thinking about.
He smiled.
And sucked on his binkie.
We were going to have to talk about him being helpful at a later date.
For the time being, I put him in the diaper that was thankfully very similar to ones on our world. Fastening it was different but a quick look on their internet had provided details for that. My other option had been to ask Klynn, so I was glad it had not come to that.
We hadn’t talked about that form of play, but his glares at Wren when my boy had been listing off fun topics to read about had been very impactful.
And I was quickly learning that anything that made him cranky was something he was curious about.
His Daddy was going to need to be a strong individual.
“Now let’s get your pajamas on.” I wasn’t as proficient at the spell to put clothes on, so I put them on manually, but it was a good time to touch my mate and connect with him physically. “I saw that yawn.”
They had stopped when he was getting out of the tub, but relaxing on the bed brought them back even stronger. He tried to shake his head and deny it, but a yawn caught him unprepared and he lost his binkie.
