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Two nights with Mel or Jayce away from home meant Viktor had all the bedspace needed to relax himself to the fullest, no longer bound by the constraints of accidentally poking or prodding his partners with his inhuman Herald form. He could just be his elongated and twisted self, his gloriously evolved form that humanity was otherwise too weak minded to withstand.
Sure, Mel and Jayce didn’t mind the
very
extraterrestrial figure behind closed doors, but it wasn’t a form they could comfortably cuddle with in bed. At least now he didn’t need to worry about it, even if only for two nights. As much as he missed his husband and wife, he also was grateful for the time alone to starfish out on the bed like the bed hog that he was.
Two nights with just him and the kids.
Viktor jolted awake with the wailing of his son in the middle of the night, his body lurching upright by instinct to quickly tend to the crying babe. He staggered upright, slipping on his bunny slippers and grabbing his cane, moving towards the nursery just around the corner from their master bedroom.
His eyes had not fully opened or adjusted to being awake, so everything was blurry thanks to the way his golden eyes glowed. It took a few seconds for the world around him to settle, but once it did he could clearly see his wriggling little potato whimpering and sniffling.
Atlas was squirming a bit in his crib, kicking his legs in his sleep sack before his eyes cracked open, and he began cooing at the now looming Herald.
“Did you have an accident?” Viktor whispered, knowing he really shouldn’t be speaking to not wake him even more. He couldn’t stop himself though, he just loved talking to his little ones more than anything.
Viktor placed his hand on the baby’s bum, humming softly while lifting him to take him to the changing station. Having three hands really was better than two, making the whole diaper changing process go by quicker than his human form.
“Oh, someone made a big stinky,” Viktor’s face was unmoving in his form, but he could tell he was smiling with his eyes as he tended to his little one. He was so much like his daughters that his heart swelled with a painful amount of love.
After making sure Atlas was clean and diapered, he allowed himself the guilty pleasure of keeping his little potato out of the crib just a few minutes longer, all so he could cradle him to his chest. A soft hum escaped his throat, echoing in the chambers of his inhuman form as he lulled his baby back to sleep.
As he stood over Atlas’s crib, the same crib Jayce had made for Mercury all those years ago, he heard a soft gasp to the side. His head turned quickly, his eyes going wide as he looked down at the little girls staring up at his towering, monstrous body.
Viktor gulped, slowly laying Atlas back in his crib before reaching a hand out. “Girls,” Viktor’s warped voice whispered in the echo chambers of his throat, the edges of his organic flesh-metal eye sockets widened to reflect the glow of his cosmic stare more.
The two young girls looked frozen, eyes wide before an audible sniffle was heard. Lips trembling, hands shaking while clinging to beloved plushies. The air was tense as the trio stood still in the dim darkness that lingered between them. The starry themed night light in Atlas’s room created the smallest glow that mixed with the purple bioluminescence of Viktor’s otherworldly skin.
The whole house seemed to freeze, the sound of the Atlas’s sound machine even fizzled into nothingness, almost as if the power in the device was shutting down. The night light seemed to dim and flicker slightly as the pair of girls stared up at the mantis-like creature looming over their baby brother’s crib.
“Daddy, I had a nightmare! There was a big scary monster and papa and mama couldn’t defeat it and you weren’t there and-” Venus gushed, her words becoming inaudible with her cries as she lunged forward to wrap her arms around Viktor’s long legs, bunching up his silky sleep pants with her tiny fists.
“She woke me up, she said that the monster went under the bed– and– I tried to fight it but what if -if it came to eat you? And then you weren’t in your room, so we–” Mercury sniffle-whispered as she also was on the verge of crying, sleepy terror making her shudder.
“There, there, it was just a bad dream, there are no monsters in this house,” Viktor’s echoing robotic voice metallically rumbled as he hunched over his daughters. “They’d be foolish to trespass here.”
That didn’t seem to soothe his girls, only earning two sets of whimpers from them as well as a gurgle from Atlas. Viktor looked between the crib and his daughters a few times before taking a big unneeded deep breath.
Right.
“Come on, let's not wake Atlas,” Viktor whispered as he leaned down, trying to shoo them from the room.
Neither girl wanted to move, both tightly wrapped around his legs at this point. He was fearful that their noises would wake their brother, and then he’d have three crying children to juggle at once.
No, that would not do.
“Girls, how about we all go sleep in my bed, yes? You two can have all the space you want,” Viktor assured the pair, petting Venus’ head gently to calm her.
Mercury looked up at him before nodding, though Venus didn’t budge at all. The middle child had to be picked up, allowing her tight grip to wrap around his neck as he carried her to the master bedroom with the eldest clinging to his waistband.
With the door to the nursery cracked, he took his daughters to the massive king bed before depositing Venus on the mattress. Viktor then looked at Mercury, lifting her up slowly even as his back cracked from the weight of his little girl.
“Oh, you’ve gotten so big,” He huffed, though made sure to nudge his flat face into the side of her cheek as if he had his nose. Mercury whined at the cold feeling of his metal-flesh and squirmed to get into Viktor’s spot on the bed.
Then Venus also tried to get in Viktor’s spot on the bed.
They both just wanted to bunch up in the center of the bed, much like how Viktor was sandwiched between Mel and Jayce when his spouses were home.
“Alright girls, give me a second to-” Viktor was cut off as he went to get back in his human form, because both of them shot up.
“No no no!” Venus begged as she scampered over the blankets trying to get traction. “Stay like glowstick-bug daddy!”
Viktor blinked, “Won’t I be too big in the bed with you two?”
“No! Because you can scare the monsters away!” Venus explained. “You need to go to our room and get rid of the monsters first so they won’t eat our things!”
“Or Atlas!” Mercury added. Venus blinked at the horrifying idea, hugging her badger plushie with a bashful hum.
“Right, and Atlas. The monster might try to eat Atlas since he’s just all defenseless!” Venus shouted, making Viktor flinch.
“No need to yell, flytrap, I’m right here,” Viktor tried to assure Venus before Mercury pulled on his top to get his attention.
“Yeah! Mantis-daddy is way scarier than normal-mode daddy,” Mercury praised as she flopped down on Viktor’s pillow. “You can chase the big scary monsters away!”
Viktor stared down at the two before sighing, knowing he would have been smiling if his face could show emotion. “So I should-”
“Go fight the monsters! Like how papa does! He has his whack-a-monster hammer in the closet!” Venus grabbed onto Viktor’s neck, jerking him back and forth to keep him from nestling on the bed.
“Yes, yes, papa hides the hammer very well,” Viktor wheezed as he was climbed over and on top of, sitting on the bed so Venus wouldn’t fall onto the hardwood ground.
Before either of the girls could argue their case for him to play defender, there was a creaking sound that made the air suddenly grow tense. Viktor stared at the door to his room before resting a hand on his littlest daughter to carefully place her back in bed.
“Girls… stay here,” Viktor whispered as his eyes narrowed, standing up and grabbing his crutch to lean on as he slipped out of the room.
Mercury pulled Venus close to her, both for her own comfort and to soothe her sister’s whimpers and whines. She nuzzled her face into her baby sister’s hair while squeezing her eyes shut, feeling how Venus hugged her badger plushie for dear life.
They listened to their daddy’s feet creaking on the carpeted hallway, moving slowly. Mercury tried to picture their daddy was like a heron looking for fish, that he was going to get this monster by surprise before any of them were nabbed up to be gobbled down.
Silence filled the house, except for the slight fuzzy noise of Atlas’s sound machine that could be heard from the other room.
“Do you think it ate daddy?” Venus whispered to Mercury.
“What? No, nothing can eat daddy– he’s like– the size of a tree, and also I’m sure he’s toxic,” Mercury tried to assure.
“Oh cool, so daddy can bite the monster and it’ll explode,” Venus grinned, though her sister just snorted in amusement.
“That’s venny-mons, silly, not poisin-us, and they wouldn’t explode… at least I don’t think so,” the oldest sister said as they cuddled on the bed, listening for a few minutes before they could hear footsteps creaking on the floorboards.
Finally, at last they could see the glowing skin and eyes of their daddy in the darkness, illuminating the unknown with a comforting collage of gold and purple. While mommy had her soothing voice and papa was big and warm, daddy was a literal night light against the darkness.
“The monster is gone, my darling discoveries,” Viktor cooed as he moved over to the bed, pulling the blankets back from the foot and corners to cover his girls.
He climbed into bed on Mel’s side before curling up around his two precious little girls. His third arm pulled the blanket over their shoulders as Venus turned over to nuzzle into his chest.
“Thank you, daddy,” Venus yawned.
“Goodnight, my little flytrap,” Viktor hummed his affectionate nickname for her as he nuzzled into her head. He then looked over at Mercury, seeing she was looking at him while hugging her plushie. “Good night, my little hero.”
Mercury smiled at him, “Good night, daddy.”
The girls were both safe and cozy in his elongated arms, the sounds of the house seemed to return and the night continued. But then Mercury shifted again, looking up at Viktor once more. “Can Rio cuddle with us too? Can you get him?”
Viktor smiled at her, and used his third arm to gently stroke and pet her soft hair. “I actually already put Rio in charge of guarding against any other monsters in Atlas’ room, to keep him safe.”
The answer seemed satisfactory enough, and Mercury settled once more and shut her eyes.
Both of his daughters seemed to drift off, and Viktor could finally get some sleep.
And then he was nudged several times in the arm, shaking him awake.
“Pssst, daddy, can you turn off your night light glowing?” Venus whispered.
Viktor paused before mumbling,” No, sweetie, it’s part of mantis-daddy-mode. It helps keep the monsters away.”