Bab 73: Family time
Doran is woken up by someone patting his cheeks, he opens his eyes and sees his little sister looking at him with her big black eyes.
"Dowy wakey wakey."
"Yes, yes. I am awake." The prince yawns and turns his head looking out the window, he sees that the sky is still quite dark and there are still no orange rays passing through it.
"It's still early, little sun. How about we sleep a little longer?" The prince looks at her hopefully, that hope is immediately crushed by the little princess.
"No!" Elia folds her hands and looks at him with all the seriousness that a toddler can have. "You pwomis play! And stowies"
Doran remembers those promises, four days ago when he left for Progress Town to finish the last Galleon checkups and finish some projects he promised the babies that he would spend a whole day with them playing whatever they wanted. Elia demanded a lot of games and stories. Oberyn on the other hand is too young to understand his older brother's promise and just nodded at everything his sister said.
"Fine, fine. No more sleeping. But can I have something to eat before we start our day together?"
"Hmm." Elia looks thoughtful.
"How about I make some pancakes?"
"Yes! Panceky!" Elia jumps on the bed and starts pulling on Doran's hand. "Quik! Panceky!"
"Elia, first we have to get dressed. We can't go to the kitchens dressed like this."
Doran is wearing only cotton briefs and a shirt, and Elia is dressed in an orange nightgown.
The princess replies with every toddler's favorite word.
"Why?"
"Because we are Martell" The prince simply answers, Elia nods as if that had all the sense in the world.
The princess loves to ask the why of things:
Why is the sky blue?
Because it rains?
Why does sea water taste weird?
Why does Olly have white hair?
The questions are endless, and many of them are so hard to answer that there's no way a baby would understand the answers, so Doran came up with several silly and easy answers to satisfy his sister's curiosity.
Doran dresses in gold pants and an orange tunic, after which he picks up his little sister in his arms and carries her to her room which is a couple of doors away. There, he begins the arduous task of dressing the princess, who always seems to have a problem with any outfit he chooses.
"No gween!"
"Ugly sleeves!"
"Don't wan tha`!"
`At least she's developing her own fashion sense.`
After half an hour Elia finally agrees to be dressed in a gold sleeveless dress with little red suns.
As Doran puts her sandals on her, he looks at another almost identical dress lying in the reject pile, the only difference being that the suns on that dress are orange instead of red, and sighs.
Already dressed, the two Martells head towards the kitchens, while they are going down in the elevator, Elia seems to have an epiphany.
"Oby! Dowy also Oby!" The child pulls the prince's hair calling his attention.
"Oh! Elia!" Doran releases his lock of hair from his sister's little hand with a wince. "Oberyn is a baby, and babies need a lot of sleep. When we finish the pancakes I'll send someone to see if our brother is awake, and if he is, have them bring him."
Elia nods, understanding what her brother means.
`This is neither the first nor the second time that my younger siblings have pulled my hair to get my attention. Should I shave it to avoid more pain?`
***
When they reach the kitchens they only see two of the cooks who work at Sunspear, they were sitting in some chairs having tea and when they see the prince and princess they quickly get up and greet them.
"My prince, my princess. Good morning!"
"Do you want us to prepare something for you?"
"Hello!" Elia waves and smiles brightly at them. Doran can practically see their hearts melt at such a display of adorability.
``Not for nothing do I have the cutest sister ever` The prince thinks proudly, having already forgotten how said little sister almost pulled out a lock of hair just a few minutes ago.
"I promised Elia that I would cook the food, so you can take some time off."
"But my prince-" One of the cooks starts to protest, not being used to a lord, let alone a prince, even knowing how to cook. Doran recognizes him as the apprentice who was only hired less than a month ago.
`I think his name was Myles, or maybe Marc?`
"Of course, my prince. Right now we will go." The veteran cook interrupts the apprentice and rushes him towards the exit. "Do not speak back to him, you idiot." Doran listens as he reprimands the apprentice.
"Panceky!" Elia draws his attention and Doran gets down to business.
He first sits his little sister at one of the tables and quickly peels an orange for her to entertain herself eating while he prepares the ingredients. The distraction was only partially helpful because as soon as Doran began to mix the ingredients, the princess insisted that she wanted to help. He left her and together they beat the pancake batter, but when it was time to fry the pancakes, Doran didn't let his little sister near the fire.
"No, you could get burned."
"Want!"
"Elia." Doran's voice becomes firmer, the princess narrows her eyes and stamps her feet in response.
"Want!"
The argument lasts a few moments, and the princess wins. Doran places the pan on the fire and the two of them cook the pancakes together, Elia carried in one of the prince's arms.
`At least I have more arm strength than the average pre teen thanks to my martial training, but cooking with one hand isn't easy."
After finishing cooking a huge stack of pancakes Doran calls for a guard and orders him to go see if Oberyn is awake. Meanwhile he orders other servants to carry the food to one of the smaller dining rooms.
While they wait for the news about Oberyn the prince cleans himself and his sister up a bit, as they both ended up with flour and pancake batter stains everywhere.
`We'll have to bath after eating,` Doran thinks as he brushes some flour out of his hair. `Or we could go swimming for a few hours, summer has just started and the water is the perfect temperature to take a dip.`
The sound of crying draws the prince's attention and he quickly puts Elia down and heads out into the hallway, where he sees the guard from before returning with Oberyn in his arms. The one-year-old seems to have woken up in a bad mood and is very vocal about it, the guard tries to rock him and he seems to be on the verge of a panic attack.
Doran quickly takes his little brother in his arms and draws him against his chest, as his heartbeat always seemed to soothe his little siblings every time they made a fuss.
The guard breathes a sigh of relief when he sees the baby's cries begin to subside.
"I am so sorry my prince, I tried everything but-"
Doran raises a hand interrupting him and gestures for him to be quiet.
"Yes, my prince." He whispers before taking a few steps back.
Once Oberyn had calmed down a bit, Doran turned his attention to Elia, who followed him out into the hall and waited patiently for her brother to attend to the baby.
"Oby better?"
"Yes, little sun. Let's eat."
***
The three Martells had breakfast together. Doran, with Oberyn on his lap and Elia sitting to his right, attended to his two little siblings like a pro; cutting their food, insisting that they chew each bite thoroughly,...
"Looks like I missed a lively meal." A female voice says with an amused tone.
"Animated, and quite chaotic." Doran answers as he wipes Oberyn's face for the umpteenth time. The baby got syrup stained up to his hair, Elia wasn't much tidier either.
Rhaella laughs at the appearance of the three Martells.
"What plans do you have for this day between siblings?" She asks him, already knowing of Doran's promise to his siblings.
"I was thinking of going for a swim, maybe sailing around the bay for a bit."
"That sounds like fun."
"Ella too!" Elia joins the conversation.
"Do you want Rhaella to join us?" Clarifies Doran.
"Yes!" The princess answers.
"Yes!" Oberyn imitates his sister.
"I don't mean to intrude. It's a family outing and-"
"Ella family!" The little princess interrupts again, her words leaving the Targaryen princess speechless.
"She is not wrong," Doran agrees with his sister's words, causing Rhaella to blush. "You have been living in Sunspear for four years, my siblings consider you like an older sister, my grandparents like a granddaughter and my parents like another daughter."
"And you, Doran. How do you see me?" Rhaella looks at him with an expression the prince can't quite read.
"You're my best friend." Doran admits, but the prince slightly turns his head away, hiding a faint blush. Rhaella noted the reddening of the prince's cheeks and smiled warmly at him.
"Alright then, I'll have to get ready for a day at the beach. But first we'll have to clean these two up." The dragon princess takes Elia in her arms and heads for the door.
Doran sits for a few moments before getting up and walking out of the dining room with Oberyn in his arms.
`I'll have to tell the cooks to pack a picnic basket.`
***
Note: This was Doran with his siblings, he clearly adores and pampers them a lot. Elia has him in the palm of her hand, lol. For more information, Rhaella was sent to be fostered to Sunspear in 255AC. Another thing, what do you think of Elia and Oberyn? I have no experience writing toddlers, nor do I have experience with them in real life. For more info: Elia is two years old in Planetos, which would be about two years and two months in Earth years, Oberyn is one year old.
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