Eating

Venelana brought Zeke's head closer to her breast, aligning his lips with her nipple, the areola of which was larger and darker than normal. "Eat up honey," she said.

Nevertheless, Zeke didn't open his mouth to suck on the proffered nipple. Rather, his mind had temporarily gone blank. It wasn't like he was against the idea of drinking milk from a breast. Despite his lack of a sex life in his past life, that didn't stop him from thinking like an average male, most of which have wondered at least once what breastmilk tastes like. Though he had never spared the idea much thought, he wasn't opposed to the idea, especially since it was necessary for him in his current condition.

Rather, he was frozen at the idea of having to breastfeed from his mother.

In his mind, Venelana had always been extremely attractive for an anime girl. But things were real now. He wasn't just in the DxD universe, he had been reborn into the Gremory family as Venelana's son. Given his twenty plus year mentality, he couldn't help but think this situation was slightly incestuous.

It must be said that Zeke had had a short fling in his teen years with another girl from his orphanage. He had also occasionally fantasized about his orphanage mother. However, he justified his actions and thoughts by convincing himself that it was fine as they weren't related by blood. Moreover, growing up, he had always dreamed of what it would be like to have a real mother and father. To him, such a situation would be filled with heartwarming love and happiness, with everyone caring for each other. Nowhere in his daydreams did he ever go out of his way to attribute 'sexiness' to his image of a mother.

Though, with his memories of his previous life, Zeke hadn't emotionally accepted Venelana as his mother, he intellectually accepted the facts. And, despite the extremely enticing 'fact' that was probing against his lips, his morals and pride wouldn't allow him to suck.

(Besides, what would she think of me if she ever discovered I was reincarnated with my memories intact?) Zeke wondered. He had no doubt that it would harm their relationship to some degree, and he might even be labeled as a pervert.

"Why isn't he accepting it?" Venelana muttered. "I had heard it can take a while for some to accept it, but I never thought with how hungry he must be…"

Zeke could almost tangibly feel his mother's rising anxiety as she faced an unfamiliar challenge.

"Open up, honey. Don't you want to eat? It'll taste good and fill your little tummy. I'm sure you'll love it," she cajoled while rubbing his back.

(I know, that's exactly what I'm worried about) he retorted internally. (*Sigh* If I were a normal baby that would end up forgetting these traumatic experiences, this wouldn't be an issue.)

Seeing Zeke still wasn't eating, Venelana began muttering to herself again. "I wonder if I can find a wet nurse? I don't know of anyone else who has just given birth, but maybe Zeoticus does." Finishing that thought, she then let loose a stream of tears as she stared at Zeke. "I hope he doesn't hate me."

Zeke was surprised at the tears. He had never thought Venelana would be the type to cry over something like this, but he chalked it up to her hormones.

Letting the tears fall for several more seconds, Zeke finally thought, (Man up! You can't let your own mother cry and blame herself for your inadequacies. You're going to have to suckle someone's teat anyways. So long as you just eat and don't do anything weird, it will all be fine. Screw your pride.)

Resolving himself, he opened his mouth, lunged forward and sucked on the proffered nipple. Milk entered his mouth slowly at first but increasing in amount with each suck. His newly formed taste buds enjoyed the experience. Comparing it to a cow's milk, this was a bit sweater and watery.

Simultaneously, Venelana had a surprised expression, her son's sudden vigor in feeding probably catching her off guard. But slowly that expression faded to be replaced by a warm smile. "See, it's good. Eat up lots and become strong, little Zeke."

Just like Venelana, Zeke was also surprised. As the milk ran down his throat to his stomach, his senses told him that the milk was loaded with crimson demonic energy. For its mass, the milk was denser than even the womb or the umbilical cord's energy channel had been. At this point, he recalled that – in humans at least – for a few days following birth, a mother's milk would be extra nutritious for the child. He wondered if such a large amount of energy in Venelana's milk was due to a similar reason. If so, then even if her milk continued to carry demonic energy later, these next couple days were an opportunity he couldn't let go of.

Thus, while he continued to suck, his focus then became in manipulating the energy he had consumed and cycling it through his body and meridians, and towards his dantian. With the proficiency he had gained with his energy manipulation skill, his dantian began to fill up quickly. When it was nearly filled to the brim, Zeke stopped channeling energy into and instead left the remaining energy in his meridians. As his body was also naturally absorbing the physical nutrients and energy from the milk, he trusted his body would automatically transfer that energy through his meridians and to his dantian according to what it could handle.

A total of 22 minutes passed before Zeke felt full in the physical sense. As he released the nipple and pulled a little away, Venelana smiled at him as she closed her bra's cup. She then laid a towel over her shoulder and brought Zeke up to rest and lean against it as she proceeded to pat his back.

It was then felt the sensation of air pockets in his stomach rising as his mother burped him. Moments later, a burp, accompanies by a decent amount of his stomach's contents, exited his mouth.

"Oh, what a good burp!" Venelana cheerily said. She seemed pleased despite that some of the spit up had missed the towel and ended up on the back of her shirt.

Zeke, however, gave an internal groan. Though feeding from his mother wasn't quite as bad as he had expected, it was still awfully embarrassing and awkward. And now he had thrown up on his mother. He lamented how truly horrible it was to be a baby.

(Lord Chaos, please let me grow up quickly) he prayed.

Venelana continued to pat his back, resulting in a few more burps, though none of these accompanied by liquid. And, with a full stomach and energy pool, the rhythmic patting made Zeke drowsy and he eventually fell back to sleep.

**********

(Zeoticus PoV)

Though he wished to spend the entire day with his wife and newborn son, the world's affairs rest not for any ruler. After cordially sending off his and Venelana's peerage members, he then accompanied his wife and son to Zeke nursery. Following this, he proceeded to his study where he fervently read reports about his domain and the actions of the other noble houses. With the precision of an experienced ruler, he then gave his subordinates their necessary tasks.

Knowing that both Zeke and Venelana would be resting during this time, Zeoticus worked longer and harder than usual. By the end of the day, barring any emergencies, he had accomplished enough to allow him a reprieve for a few days. He was looking forward to spending that time with his gorgeous wife and adorable daughter and son.

Arriving at Zeke's nursery, he gave a soft, cursory knock on the door before opening it and walking in.

The first thing to catch his eyes was his wife, so immaculately beautiful despite having given birth earlier, standing over the crib at the center of the room. On her face was a warm and comforting smile that she only ever gave to family.

In the corner of his eye, he also saw a damp towel atop the end table next to the chair. From this and the faint scent in the air, Zeoticus concluded that Venelana must have just recently finished feeding Zeke.

Walking forward, he hugged his wife from behind, resting his head on his shoulder as he too gazed lovingly down on his son. "How was he?" he softly asked.

"Eager," she responded, letting out a little chuckle. "He didn't want my breast at first, but once he got going, you wouldn't believe how hard he sucked."

"Good. Hopefully that means he'll be strong." The first three days after birth were important for a devil child. During this time, they would be exposed to high concentrations of demonic energy via their mother's breastmilk. Unlike in the womb where energy was delivered and absorbed by the child in a relatively constant manner, the safe exposure to the high amount of energy in breastmilk was uniquely beneficial. For one, based on how much a child could absorb, parents could glean information about their child's limits and abilities. Furthermore, some researchers had even found that – though other research existed opposing this hypothesis – this concentrated energy also contained a unique property that could widen the child's meridians and lead to greater energy absorption capabilities in the future.

As a result of this, Venelana had been making full use of her senses to watch Zeke as he ate.

"Did he absorb much," he asked.

Venelana nodded. "To the point where I doubt his body could have taken any more."

Hearing this, Zeoticus recalled Sara's hypothesis five months prior. "Was it due to natural absorption or…"

Shaking her head, Venelana said, "It definitely felt like he was consciously manipulating the energy." She paused for a second, then smiled even wider than she'd previously been. "It seems he's a genius."

Zeoticus hugged her even tighter, happy thinking of his son's future progress. However, at the same time, he was worried. With the increased security as of late, no devil had dared attack. However, that was when no one knew of his son's potential. If information of his son was leaked, it could lead to the Gremory's enemies enacting their plans.

Unfortunately, he was very limited in the actions he could take. He couldn't increase security as that would be a clear signal to outsiders that something was 'off' about their son. Hiding his son away was also not possible. Zeoticus already held a great amount of affection for the boy and refused to allow someone else watch over and raise him. Besides, he was sure Venelana would castrate him if he took Zeke away.

Therefore, realistically, the only current option was to maintain the status quo. Then, as their son grew, he would provide as many opportunities as he could for Zeke's power to grow. In Hell, power meant everything. So long as he could protect Zeke until the boy was strong, then everything ought to work out. Hopefully.

As though knowing what he was thinking, Venelana said, "Do you remember the conditions you swore to when you married me?"

"I do." Though their marriage was arranged by their parents, Venelana was hardly such a woman to simply go with the flow of things. Instead, she had made Zeoticus swear an oath to many conditions. Should he fail in what he promised, Venelana was free to punish him in whatever way she wished. "I swore I would protect our children with all my strength."

"Good." She then said with a touch of coldness in her voice, "If anything happens to Zeke or Rias and you could have prevented it, there's no place you nor our enemies will be able to run that I won't be able to find you. I'll make certain you'll never be able to enjoy your harem again, much less me."

Zeoticus let out a weak laugh as sweat formed on his back. "No need to worry. They'll be perfectly safe," he assured her. His penis aching a bit, he considered boosting the Gremory's security by threefold.