cold in the violence after the war
hope is a fire to keep us warm
She snorts when Dagen nips at her, bobbing her nose at him to shoo him away. Really! She couldn’t help it if he got grumpy so easily. She hadn’t kicked him that hard. Only a nudge really. Besides, it’s not like he hadn’t knee’d her in the face enough times when they’d been in that nice dark warm place. He should be glad she is so forgiving!
Leaning happily into Daddy, she rubs her face against him when he nudges at her, wobbling a little beneath his affectionate touches. She sighs heavily as she settles her cheek against his knee, blinking sleepily and Mommy and Dagen. She isn’t paying too much attention as Mom and Dad talk above her, instead enjoying the way his voice rumbles through his chest. It’s such a warm, comforting sound.
It isn’t until Dad reaches down to nip gently at her neck that she stirs. She blinks up at him, and when he lifts his head, she reaches out her little nose to bite at his chin, just like he’d done on her neck.
He’s talking again though, and she immediately perks up when he calls her Brazen. Beaming up at him, she grins. She really likes how that word sounds. Dagen got to be Dagen, and she would be Brazen. “Brazen,” she repeats, testing the syllables out on her tongue. It sounds a little different in her high-pitched, childish voice, but she still likes it.
Mom doesn’t seem happy for a minute. But she thinks maybe that’s just how Mom is sometimes. Besides, it’s her name, not Mommy’s. And Daddy seemed to like it, which, in her youthful mind, settled the matter.
She’s distracted when Dad leans forward though, squishing her a little bit as he reaches out to Mom. She squeaks, ears splaying sideways as she flattens herself against him. She peers up at him with one blue eye, scowling. Totally missing the byplay between Mommy and Daddy. Besides, gross! She would’ve been glad to miss it if she’d known.
She huffs when he leans back again before squirming in closer. He could squish her all he wanted, this is her spot! She isn’t leaving it. Not even for whoever he is calling over to them right now.
Brazen
