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Impulse was rolling the car back and forth with the baby when they, without any apparent warning, grew bored of their favorite toy and pushed it away. They crawled up to Impulse and made grabby hands up at him, grinning widely and showing all their sharp teeth when he took them in his arms.
“Tired of playing with the car?” he asked. The baby didn’t answer, not that Impulse expected them to. Instead they tried to wrap their little arms around Impulse’s broad chest, failing spectacularly and making his heart melt.
And then they bit him. Hard.
“Hey!” Impulse picked them up and held them away from his body, trying to ignore the blood and the little holes he would surely find in his shirt if he looked down. “What was that for?”
The baby pouted angrily and bared their teeth.
Impulse called for Tango, and a moment later Tango’s familiar face peeked out from behind a door.
“You called?”
“I think they need to be fed.”
“Really?” Tango stepped into the room and crouched down next to them. “Are you hungry again already?”
The baby ignored him, still upset at Impulse for some reason that probably made sense in their mind but was completely unknown to Impulse.
“They bit me,” Impulse said. “Look, see?”
Tango stared at the tiny bloodstains and puncture marks on Impulse’s chest, mouth open. Tears welled up in his eyes.
“Tango?” Impulse said, alarmed. “Is something wr-”
“Oh, Pulsey,” Tango said softly. He rubbed his eyes, faintly irritated. “Agh, this is just another thing I forgot to tell you guys.”
Impulse looked at the baby, then back to Tango. “Is this another demon thing? You said biting’s a big deal for you guys, right?”
“Yeah. Yeah, it is. Babies can’t talk, so they use their teeth to tell you what’s up.”
Tango held his hand up to the baby and let them gnaw at a finger while they continued to glare at Impulse with all the anger their little heart could muster.
“If a baby bites you on the chest like that, it means they consider you just as important as the person who feeds them.”
Impulse let that sink in. “So, they were… calling me their dad?” he said, hoping his voice didn’t shake too noticeably. No point in making Tango worry that Impulse felt insecure in their family — for the most part that kind of insecurity was long gone, only appearing in the occasional nightmare.
“In a way, I guess. Not sure if I can explain it in this language. But it’s a very big deal, like, it’s the biggest show of love a kid can give.” Tango ruffled the baby’s hair with his other hand. “Is that why you’re so mad, little guy? Daddy didn’t respond the way you think he should?”
“How- how was I supposed to react?” Impulse asked, worried he’d permanently screwed up his relationship with the baby. He didn’t know how he’d live with himself if that were the case.
Tango gave him a nervous smile. “You won’t like it.”
“What is it?”
“You’re supposed to bite them back,” Tango said. “On the neck, like you’re gonna pick them up by the scruff.”
That didn’t sound horrible, per se. Even though part of Impulse balked at the idea, he knew very well how resilient demons were. And neck bites, heck, even humans did those sometimes. So Impulse brought the baby closer, turning them around so he’d have better access, and bit gently.
“Harder than that,” Tango said. “You’ll know when to stop, trust me.”
Impulse hated the idea of hurting the baby, his baby, but increased the pressure. Nothing happened, so he bit a little harder-
A new connection bloomed into existence in his mind, so very different from the connections he already had with Tango and Zed but just as powerful. Love radiated out from it so intensely Impulse almost dropped the baby, and he wrapped his arms tight around them as the initial shock of the new connection faded.
“Oh,” he said eloquently. “Yeah, I can see what you mean by this being a big deal.”
Tango snorted. “Your eyes are so wide you look like Keralis.”
“Can you blame me?”
“Guess not.” Tango hugged them both as best he could from the side. “Is this better, kid? Happy now?”
The baby sneezed, then wriggled out of their hold so they could go back to pushing their car back and forth. Tango pressed closer to Impulse, kissing his cheek and leaning against him as they watched the baby play.
“How do you feel?” he asked.
“Like I’m gonna start crying,” Impulse admitted. “I don’t know how else to describe it. Good. Very good.”
Then he did start crying, just a little, so Tango kissed his cheek again and the baby crawled back into his lap to try and hug him again, and sure, he just started crying more at that, but really, who could blame him?