First Demonic Dragon

"Now look. I'm not saying that Derrick Henry is the greatest athlete to ever come out of the Alabama football program. But if you were to say it, I wouldn't necessarily disagree with you..."

Odessa stared at her father blankly. K'ael was busy trying to put his own feet in his mouth.

The orange-haired infant finally looked away from him to tap her bottle on the carpet.

Abaddon let out a deep exhale as he rolled over onto his back.

"No, no, no... Tua could've been in that spot, but he can't stay healthy. Those concussions eat his ass up so badly he'll be eating blended steak with a spoon by the time he's forty."

'Ba?'

Abaddon turned his head to stare at his daughter with a suspicious look.

"Are you just saying Jalen Hurts because you think he's attractive?"

Odessa flopped onto her back and 'screamed' for seemingly no reason.

Abaddon almost sat up. "What is wrong with you? You're supposed to think your daddy is the most handsomest man in the world until you're at least eight."

Miraculously, Odessa rolled over and stood up on wobbly, chunky legs.

She took two steps forward before she fell over onto her father.

However, this seemed to be her goal, as she merely went right to trying to put his nose into her mouth.

Abaddon feigned a dejected attitude. "...This isn't a good way to win your arguments, you know? You won't always be able to get away with saying outlandish things because you're cute."

Odessa removed her father's nose from her mouth and showed him the single most adorable gummy smile that he had ever seen in his life.

"...It works for right now, though, so I guess you're fine."

Even though Odessa didn't understand what her father was saying, she still tried to hug him just for the sake of it.

"Eh!"

K'ael had rolled onto his stomach and was having difficulty lifting his head.

Abaddon casually rolled him over as he shook his head in disappointment. "No, you can't bring up Henry Ruggs yet..." Abaddon wiped away a fake tear. "It's just... *sniffle* too soon for me."

"Bla."

"Thank you for understanding, son."

Tatiana was also lying on the floor in the kids' nursery room, watching the strangest, or maybe the most adorable display of parenting that she had ever witnessed.

"You're aware that our little ones aren't old enough to understand you, right, my love?"

"You don't know that." Abaddon defended. "I think these two are pretty smart if I'm honest. They'll be running circles around Belloc in no time."

"Honey..!" Tatiana pinched him hard on his side.

While Abaddon was laughing, he felt his phone buzz and pulled it out to investigate.

Shut-In Son: I can feel you talking about me, old man. Knock it off before I post these pictures of what you look like as a fat human all over the internet.

Abaddon was no longer laughing. But Tatiana was.

He turned and gave her a slight stink eye. "Something funny?"

"N-Nope.." Tatiana bit her lip as she shook her head. "Nothing at all. Just..."

"Just?"

"I think you looked cute all chunky."

"Anyway!" Abaddon changed the subject.

He looked down at the two children sprawled across his chest and shook his head.

"This is the family we are stuck with, kids. When you're old enough, we'll have our first drink, and you can learn to cope like I do."

Tatiana just rolled her eyes.

She scooted closer to her husband and ran her fingers through his hair.

As she looked down at him, she began to have a slight, stinging suspicion.

"...You've got a lot going on upstairs, huh, babe?"

Abaddon smiled wryly.

"...I told the angels about my plan today."

Tatiana grimaced. "And how well did that go?"

"Just as well as you're thinking." Abaddon closed his eyes.

Tatiana just shook her head and sighed deeply.

Her husband's plan to merge all of the realms into Tehom was... radical to say the very least.

Merging all of the realms into his would effectively make Yesh obsolete in a sense.

Abaddon would be embedded in literally everything. His control over the realms would be iron-tight, allowing him the freedom to collapse and or restructure the realms whenever he damn well felt like it from the comfort of his bed.

No one had a problem with Yesh's level of control over the realms. But that was because people liked Yesh. Or at least didn't hate him.

Abaddon, despite the best efforts of the creator, was not fully liked or trusted by the gods for a plethora of reasons.

There were so many who would rather die by Percival's hand than bow before the black dragon.

"... If the angels are reacting like this, I can only imagine what the rest of the deities will think." Abaddon sighed.

Tatiana was silent for a long time, but Abaddon could feel her staring at him.

He cracked open one eye and found her giving him a small, bitter smile.

"...What?"

"You know I love you, right?"

"You better-"

Tatiana flicked him on the forehead. "I think you've dropped the ball for a long time now." She finally said. "And now it may finally be coming back to bite us."

"What'd I do??"

Tatiana sighed. "Yesh appointed you Judicator. I understand that a role like that might mean that you need to give the gods as a whole a certain level of distance, but.."

"But what?"

"But you act like you hate them. Whenever you walk up to the godly realms, you have this hard, sharp look on your face that makes it seem like you're just waiting for the first opportunity to draw a blade and put down a rebellion."

Abaddon was stunned.

"A-And it's not just you, my love." Tatiana added. "Lailah, Erica, Audrina, Sif, Seras, Bekka, sometimes Lisa... You can all be so hard on these people."

"I'm just trying to remain impartial." Abaddon responded. "If I approach some of the gods in too friendly a manner, they may begin to act-"

"Yes, I know that if you give some people an inch, they'll take a mile." Tatiana nodded. "But you are powerful and disciplined enough to reinforce boundaries if and when the need arises.

But for too long, you've walked around like a potential enemy to these people, and now when we need them to trust us, they're unwilling to give it.

The angels are the only outlier since their issue is more with you dethroning Yesh rather than finding you trustworthy, but the rest are..." Tatiana didn't finish, but she hardly needed to. The point had been made.

Abaddon sighed as he stared a hole into the ceiling. "...So it's my fault then?"

"Yes." Tatiana answered instantly.

"So then, how do I fix it?"

Tatiana grabbed her husband by the top of his head and gently turned his gaze towards her.

"You can't."

Somehow, Abaddon already knew that was coming.

"Or at least... not right away." Tatiana finished.

Abaddon's eyes had renewed hope.

"All that you can do now is lead, babe. Be the leader that all of the gods unite their banners underneath, and lead them even if you can't do it in the easiest way. One avenue is closed to us despite our actions. That's fine. But how do we pivot from here?"

Abaddon stared at his wife for a long time.

She smirked at him, almost as if he could hear what he was thinking.

"Amazed by me?"

"I'm never not."

Tatiana placed her forehead against his own.

Their lips pressed together in a gentle, yet intimate gesture that was like the carrot coming after the stick.

It was a sweet moment Abaddon would have enjoyed exponentially more if it weren't for his daughter making a very familiar straining noise out of the blue.

After a full minute, she stopped and exhaled in relief.

Abaddon and Tatiana just stared at her.

"...Not it."

"Not- Damn it." Abaddon hit his head against the floor.

"Ha!"

Tatiana laughed as she kissed him on his cheek and got off the ground. "You have fun with that, sweetheart. Consider it your punishment for scaring the godly flock of sheep."

She tossed him their daughter's diaper bag before opening the door to leave the room.

However, she never expected to find Izanami outside looking like she was just about to enter.

"Coming in?"

"I am." Izanami said in a low voice.

"Alright then. Make sure you don't help Grandpa over there with the diaper changing, K?"

Both women looked at Abaddon and his new crestfallen expression.

He was just as happy that his grandsons Askari and Reken were born than anyone. But he didn't like that their officially being here meant that he was in fact an old man.

His best days were behind him...

Tatiana let Izanami inside, but not before she gave her an obligatory smack on the butt and whispered in her ear discreetly.

"Can't wait to see you tonight~..."

Izanami's entire face turned red as she nodded.

When the door closed, Abaddon carried Odessa towards a changing station in the room.

Before Izanami even spoke, Abaddon beat her to it.

"I'm sorry... I know that I should be spending far more time with you, but things right now are just-"

"You don't need to apologize to me for that. I'm more than understanding of the... turbulent times that we're all currently in." Izanami shook her head.

Abaddon looked back at her and smiled. "I will make it all up to you soon. In whatever way your heart desires."

Ordinarily, Izanami would have blushed at that.

But today, she had a little bit more on her mind, and as a result, such a thing was impossible.

"...I need to know something."

"Hm?" Abaddon looked back as he incinerated a particularly lethal diaper.

Slowly, Izanami lifted a trembling finger as she pointed at little K'ael, who was sprawled across the floor.

"Did you... put my son in your son's body?"