Title: Man of the House
Fandom: Diablotin
Rating: PG
Length: 769
Content notes: vaguely Oedipal but mostly innocent kid stuff
Summary: Loick Silveira woke up early, but tried to stay in bed until the sun had passed over the branch of the beech tree outside his window, because if he got out of bed then Mlle. Paulanne, his latest governess, would scrub his face with cold water and brush his hair (she pulled too hard) and make him get dressed in a shirt with a scratchy collar and then begin his lessons, and the longer he could avoid all of that, the better.

Loick Silveira woke up early, but tried to stay in bed until the sun had passed over the branch of the beech tree outside his window, because if he got out of bed then Mlle. Paulanne, his latest governess, would scrub his face with cold water and brush his hair (she pulled too hard) and make him get dressed in a shirt with a scratchy collar and then begin his lessons, and the longer he could avoid all of that, the better. Instead he hid under the blankets and played with the tin soldiers he had carefully hidden down at the foot of the bed the night before, until eventually he started to wonder why Mlle. Paulanne hadn't come to wake him yet. He hoped that maybe Mama had fired her like she had the last three - he always got a few delicious days of freedom between governesses.

He crept quietly out of the nursery and down the long hallway with its thick carpets, down the stairs to the grown-up floor where he wasn't normally supposed to go, except if Mama said it was all right. He thought about maybe going into the music room, but banging on the piano would no doubt attract someone's attention, and then he would be out of luck. Instead he decided he would go to the green parlour, where there was a carambole table, and a chess set with jade and ivory pieces, and a music box with dancers on the top who really moved - all of which he was strictly forbidden to touch.

The heavy door gave him a moment of trouble, but he managed to pull it open wide enough for him to slip inside, where he was confronted with a strange and confusing scene. His Mama was lying on the sofa near the window, mostly undressed, and there was a man he didn't know, mostly on top of her. She sat up abruptly when she saw him, pushing the strange man aside and pulling her filmy robe about her. "Loick! Out!" she shouted, and he turned and ran away as quickly as he could.

He took refuge in the kitchen, where Cook gave him a thick piece of bread with butter that he could eat quietly in the corner. He decided that he didn't like the men who visited his mother. Most of them tried to pretend he wasn't there, or else they acted like they were friendly and gave him presents, but he could tell they didn't mean it. When he was little he used to wonder if any of them were his father, or if one of them might marry Mama and become his father, but he had stopped that last year because imagining things like that was for babies, and he was big enough to be the man of the house now.

The bread was just about gone by the time Mama found him. She had put on the shiny blue dress that he liked, and her hair was up, mostly, but with a few silver strands falling around her face as she went to gather him up in her arms. "I'm sorry, my dearest," she told him, letting him lean against her. "I didn't mean to yell, I was just startled."

Loick nodded, trying not to cry, because he was six, and a six year old boy shouldn't cry (unless maybe he was hurt.) "Is that man gone?"

"Yes, sweetheart, all gone."

"Good," he said, a little spitefully, holding harder to his mother, who hugged him back. "I don't want him to marry you."

"Don't worry about that," she replied, smoothing his hair. "He's just a friend. I'm not planning to marry anyone. None of them are good enough to be your Papa, anyway."

Loick nodded, relieved to hear it. "When I grow up, I'll be good enough and I'll marry you."

His mother laughed, but not in a way that made him feel embarrassed. "I'll be very, very old by the time you're ready to get married, darling, and you'll find a much nicer and prettier girl your own age."

He doubted that would ever happen, because his Mama was the prettiest lady in the world, but he smiled anyway. Mama stood up and took him by the hand. "No lessons today," she announced grandly. "We'll have crêpes with jam and cream for breakfast, and then we'll go to the Menagerie."

Crêpes with jam and cream were Loick's favourite, and the Menagerie was always exciting, especially the kobold house, but getting to spend the day with Mama was the biggest treat of all.