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Tala & Axel- Braiding

Axel found himself in Tala’s room, the little tiefling was sick. Elowen asked him to take care of her while she and Riven went to the doctor. She was stuck in bed sleeping, with a pitiful look on her face. Tala started squirming around in a cold sweat, Axel felt her forehead when she stopped moving. She had a fever. It wasn’t there before. Axel quickly went downstairs, filled a bowl with water, and got a couple of hand towels. He sat there for a few minutes, when a realization hit, Axel had no idea how to take care of a child. He could most certainly try though.

Tala woke up feeling nauseous, and she could feel pain in her stomach. She started to cry, Axel asked what was wrong. “My tummy hurts. I feel food coming up.”, Tals said quietly, Axel went to look for something for her to throw up in. He eventually found a bucket, but when he got back to her room Tala had already thrown up on the floor. He cleaned it up, put the bucket next to her bed, and rubbed her back as more crying ensued. Tala tried climbing into his lap, but before she could succeed, Axel put her back into bed. The four year old looked a little sad, Axel assumed it was because she was sick and didn’t put any more thought into it.

Tala laid in bed with a wet towel on her head, she felt really tired. Axel was fixing food that would be easy on her stomach. She didn’t feel hungry, so he set it aside on the bedside table for later. Tala asked Axel to tell stories about old adventures, which she was easily engrossed in. Tala ate her food while the high elf told one last story. “Can I braid your hair?”, Tala asked before yawning. 

“You need to rest, Tala.”, Axel replied, getting ready to put another towel on the tiny tielfing’s head. “Pleeease”, she dragged out the word, “I want to practice.”she whined. Both of them were persistent in their minibattle of arguments, but Tals won in the end. 

Axel sat on her bed and took his hair down, Tala crawled over to him. Her tail flicked side to side in excitement, she just had to reach the top of his head. She’d overcome this, Axel felt multiple tugs on his hair. He asked if everything was alright when Tals gave up. “Too tall.”, she sighed in defeat, there was a small sense of pity he felt when he looked at her. “It could be a low braid.”, the blonde elf suggested. Tala shook her head and reached as high as she could. “Oh, let me get a ribbon first.”, Tala said, getting up, but Axel told her no and he would get it for her. 

Axel sat down after handing a ribbon to Tala, she thanked him as she divided his long hair into three sections. She started asking him questions about what her dad was like, how her parents met, and other similar things. Axel was happy to answer her questions, she ended up laughing at how Riven acted around Elowen when they had a crush on her. A few minutes passed by as Tala tied the ribbon neatly into a bow so the braid would hold. “And done!”, she said excitedly. Axel looked at it,”It's very nice. I appreciate it.”

“Nnooo, you need to go look in a mirror first before you can say anything!”Tala said with a whiny-angry tone and pout on her face. He stood up and walked into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Axel came back into her bedroom,”It’s lovely, thank you.”He said with a smile. 

The young tiefling smiled back, giggling, tailing swaying as she yawned again. She started to have a coughing, it sounded like the type that the chest would hurt afterwards. Axel walked over to Tala and just rubbed her back until the coughing stopped. Tala held her chest for a moment and held Axel’s arm.

 Her eyes were super heavy, and she crawled onto Axel’s lap. “Thank you, uncle Axel.”, Tala said as her eyes closed. His eyes widened slightly, he wasn’t expecting her to do that. He tried shaking her lightly, but she didn’t wake up. Holding her, Axel realized how small Tala was in his lap. He shifted her around a bit and wrapped her up in her blanket. Axel sat cross-legged, eventually falling asleep as well.

---Bonus Scene---

Riven and Elowen got back from the doctor. “Axel, we're back! Sorry we took longer than expected, we had to get medicine for Tals!”Riven called out, walking into the kitchen, but didn't see him. 

“He's probably upstairs taking care of Tals.”, Elowen said, leading them to the stairs. They walked into the bedroom to be greeted by the sight of Axel with a loose braid over his left shoulder, cross-legged, and sleeping with his back against the wall. Tala was wrapped in her blanket, sleeping, and being cradled by Axel. 

Riven commented on how cute they thought the scene was. Elowen smiled walking into the room and setting the medicine on the bedside table. “Cmon’, Riv, we have to work today.”, she said as she led her spouse away.

[halo-library]

Prompt #700

Characters are sharing stories about their first dragon, as they wait for their newest foster drakes to arrive.