A Demon's Promise

Part 10: The Right Foot

AN: I hope its not obvious here I personally got impatient with the round and round and its about time some progress started being made. Hopefully it doesn't seem forced, and from here on out, it will definitely be over a period of time.

Warnings: Language, Mentions of Abortion, Tension, Angst, Dad!Levi Fluff

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*Levi's POV*

Considering he didn't sleep much on normal nights, it was no surprise when Levi was up and moving around already when the first rays of sunlight started to glow through the downstairs windows. By now he'd healed for the most part, except a few fading scars that would be gone by midday, or at least later that evening. Sleep was particularly elusive tonight, as he'd been in enough pain to make finding a comfortable sleeping position practically impossible, especially since his usual sleeping spot was out of the question when he couldn't comfortably sit down.

Sleepless nights weren't anything new for him, anyway. He would manage.

Instead of sulking about it, he walked around the house as quietly as he could to avoid disturbing the other sleeping residents, making sure everything was clean and tidy, that everything was stocked and there really was everything that they could need on hand. From food and drinks to medicine. After that he did a surface clean where any noise he made wouldn't wake anyone up, and once the early hours of the morning arrived, he made himself a pot of tea and started considering breakfast.

Fuck, he didn't even know if the woman preferred waffles, pancakes, or steak and eggs. What kind of breakfast person was she? Did he just go continental to try and cover the basics?

Was this another thing she was going to interpret as him trying to buy her and the kids, or whatever she called it? Some other conspiracy theory for her? It wasn't like he expected to cook breakfast and everything be fixed, he just figured she would be hungry when she woke up and he might as well make something since he was already awake and down here.

Deciding to play it safe, he settled for making a few muffins and putting on more hot water for tea, as well as making eggs–scrambled, so there was no worry about sunny side up or any of that. Some bacon as well–everyone liked bacon, right? That was a safe play.

His ears tingled slightly as the first cry rent the air of a disgruntled baby, and after making sure nothing would burn if he walked away for five minutes, he headed upstairs and to the left, towards her room where the babies could now both be heard crying, since the first had woken up the other. He stopped outside the door, waiting a few seconds and able to pick up movement from inside before he gently knocked on the door.

"Need any help?" he asked when he heard that movement come to a complete standstill.

"I can handle this just fine, thank you," came the harsh, maybe even insulted response, and Levi sighed slowly through his nose, reluctantly turning from the door where he could still hear the crying and heading down the steps and back to the kitchen.

He needed to get a thick skin to these responses or this arrangement wasn't going to last long. He couldn't say a word to her without getting some harsh, snappy reply, which inevitably escalated to a fight if he didn't retreat then and there.

"Just thought you might appreciate a little support," he muttered under his breath as he made his way down the stairs, returning to the kitchen to make sure nothing had burned while he made his futile trip. He doubted it, but you never knew with cooking what could happen when you had your back turned.

Several long minutes passed before the crying upstairs stopped, long enough for one of the twins to be taken care of before the other was given equal attention. If she let him, he could have taken care of one while she took care of the other, but, apparently cooperation was not what she had in mind for parenting right now.