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| Keats Townhouse, The Pale Horse Caravan |
| It is a townhouse. |
| July 14, 3013 |
Jeremy doesn't have to limp, at least, but then again, he didn't get hit in the legs. Just the side and the hand. That hand is still wrapped up in a wire-frame cast, and he's obviously just woken up. But the call was pretty pathetic, and so he's tossed on some pajama pants, a loose tunic, low shoes, slung his crossbow over his shoulder, and made his way through a Waygate. Somewhere along the way, he gathered up a couple of necessaries — including a bulb of coffee, most of which he's drunk. He steps into Lionel's caravan-home, into the clamor of the unhappy baby, and he shakes his head, "Really? It was totally sleepy-time." The binkies and coffee are handed over, and he gets out a little jar, "Light numbing agent."
The sheer calliber of Sophia's wails have been reduced back down to pathetic, exhausted whimpers that are accented now and then by a choking cry of despair. Lionel is facedown on the couch, hand braced against Sophia's chest as the toddler sits on the floor in front of the couch, parallel to Lionel's head. Those big, teary blue eyes look up to stare at Jeremy as he enters the townhouse. Immediately, she bursts into another series of wails even as she gropes at Lionel's thumb which she has been trying to teethe on unsuccessfully. "Took you long enough," Lionel says into the couch cushion.
Jeremy shakes his head, "Put the pillow over your head, Lie." Dipping a finger into the ointment, he crouches down and wiggles it for her to glom onto, "This'll make your teefies feel better, Sof'." When she tries to gnaw on that finger, he wriggles it around her gums, spreading the goop even as he winces a little at the bite. "It's gonna be all better, Sof'." Looking up to his sprawled husband, he laughs softly, keeping up with the cooing, "Yes it is, 'Nel, yes it is." Shaking his head, he adds in, "I can't believe you let fluttering lashes talk you into taking a teething toddler without getting supplies."
Lionel lifts his head up off the couch to glare at Jeremy at his directions. He mimicks his words in a snarky voice, "'Put the pillow over your head, Lie.'" Then he breathes out a sigh as he starts to sit up, careful when he swings his feet back onto the floor. He shakes his head a bit, propping his elbow on his knee while he holds his forehead in his palm. "Bex said she just needed a couple hours," Lionel explains, his voice as exhausted as Sophia's weak cries. He looks over at Jeremy through those half-lids, blue eyes a bit dull compared to their usual sharpness. As the pain subsides from Sophia's poor gums, she starts to slump a bit on her diaper padded bottom. Lie looks relieved. "Everything was going just fine, I thought I was a natural…"
Jeremy nods his head, "Yeah… you're going to get yourself killed if you go after Hostiles like that." He finishes spreading the ointment across the baby's gums, then pulls his finger out of her mouth and plucks up a pacifier, offering it out for Sophia, who is the next little thing to be plucked up. He sets aside his crossbow, moving to scoot Lionel back on the sofa so that he can sit down next to his husband and pull Sophia into his lap, "And I'm sure you could be a natural, with a little practice."
"That isn't the definition of being a natural," Lionel complains quietly after he's scooted down a bit to make room for Jeremy. He glances over toward his husband, though it is a brief look before he casts a glare down at Sophia. The strawberry-haired baern is slowly lulling herself to sleep, those blue eyes drifting shut as she nurses away at her pacifier now that her gums are soothed. Lionel continues to glare, though there isn't enough of emotion put behind that look to be truly defiant. He sigh out a breath before he notices Jeremy's cast, and he winces. "I'm sorry, Jere… I'm sure she would have cried herself out. You didn't have to come out all this way."
Jeremy shifts Sophia over to his left arm, tucking her into the crook of his elbow and rocking gently to speed that trip into sleep, "And how insane would you have gone before she cried herself out? Besides, then she would have been in pain for hours. Looking down to the cast, he shakes his head, reaching down to brush his cast-protected fingers over his husband's brow, "It's healing. I could probably shoot now if I needed to." Laughing just a touch, he adds, "It wouldn't be pleasant, but no worse than listening to a bitty little baby scream for half an hour."
Lionel starts to chortle uneasily, shaking his head a bit — but stills just as his fingers touch the Valen's brow. It encourages his eyes upward, steel-hued blues meeting Jeremy's stormier orbs.He breathes out a steady sigh before he reaches up to brace his hand against Jeremy's, forehead touching forehead for a familiar and heartwarmed moment. Then he leans back once more before he looks down at Sophia tucked gently in his husband's arm. "Point. She wasn't that bad… really." He shrugs a bit. "I'm sure it will be different when one of those is ours."
Jeremy pulls his hurt hand around behind Lionel's head, smiling a little bit and then glancing down at the babe between them, "When?" He laughs softly, keeping quiet so as to not wake the little one, "So that's how it's going to be, is it? When?" Softening his smile, he leans up to press a kiss to his husband's brow, "I like 'when.' And I wouldn't have known without watching my parents deal with my sister."
As Sophia drifts into sleep, Lionel also seems to relax. He sinks back into the couch as he rests his head back against the cushions. His eyes close, nostrils flaring as he breathes out a heavy exhale. This allows his mind to fully grapple with the conversation at hand. "We should talk about that," he finally says. "About… the when thing…" He cracks open one eye, looking between him and Sophia. "If you don't already think I'm going to be useless at this parenting thing."
Jeremy shakes his head, "No… I don't think you'll be useless." Cracking a smile, the Arboren Keats teases, "You're going to have some reading to do, though. Or maybe I'll just put you on diaper duty and handle the rest of it myself." Shifting Sophia a little in the crook of his arm, he shakes his head, "So did you at least get a crib for the little angel? Or do you get to hold her the whole time while she's sleeping? And yes, we should talk."
"I… don't know," Lionel says, blinking owlishly at the question. He rubs his face before he hauls himself up onto his feet, stepping toward the bag that Rebecca had saddled him with when he handed over Sophia. He shuffles around within it before he pulls out something that looks vaguely like a 8-inch diameter discoid. He taps it, and it pops open into a travel crib that is ovaline in shape. He blinks at it with a kind of honest awe before he gently sets it down just on the other side of the coffee table. "They think of everything," he says honestly. Then he glances over toward Jeremy, stepping up and offering to take 'Phia from the Arboren Keats.
Jeremy watches Lionel rise up, watching him dig through the bag to come up with the pop-a-crib, and then he rises up to his feet, careful to keep Sophia gently supported, "Enough people have been mothers and fathers to know how miserable it can be without all the toys." He hands the little girl over to his husband easily, then steps back, watching with an easy, fond smile. "Poor little thing tuckered herself out." Once Sophia is down for her well-deserved nap, he settles back onto the couch, pulling a discarded fishy-toy from beneath him and tossing it lightly over alongside the crib, then looks to Lionel, "So where do we start? Besides 'after this next wave?'"
Lionel is ever so cautious in laying the little banshee to bed. He tucks her blankets up around the small redhead before he releases a relieved sigh. "My Gods, Jere… I've done things to women to make them… well…" He looks almost bashful as he glances over at his husband. "But that girl… whew…" He shakes his head a bit as he slumps back over to Jeremy, dropping heavily beside him as his hand drapes over his partner's knee. He drops his head back against the couch. "Well, yeah. After the next wave." He looks tiredly up at Jeremy. "And, well, we'd need to find out where we want our surrogate to come from. Do we look around the Caravan? Arborenin? Elsewhere entirely?" He rubs at the back of his head. "What exactly does this conversation entail?"
Jeremy shakes his head, even if a touch of jealousy plays behind those blue-gray eyes, "So what you're saying is that you have a way with women young and old, just not that young." Half-turning in his seat, he braces his elbow on the back of the couch and toys with the Lionel's hair idly, "I don't know. I'm sure it'll cost money. I suppose that's the benefit of being a House-sworn knight without a horse, or without heavy armor. And I don't know what it entails. I just want to make sure that you are completely comfortable with the ideas. I don't want to force you into anything you don't want, Lie."
At the touch to his hair, Lionel looks up to meet Jeremy's eyes, and there is a faint hint of a smile on his normally easy-to-grin lips. "Look, Jere… I said I wanted a family with you, and I meant it… the War is here, isn't it? They are knocking at our doors." He shrugs a bit. "You aren't forcing me to do anything. I know if I didn't want it, I could say so, and you'd take it in stride. But, fuck, Jere…" He offers him a easier smile. "Would be nice to know we're giving something back to Haven besides our blood and sweat."
Jeremy nods his acceptance of that, although he does add, "And our sexy, sexy bodies." He's obviously teasing as he breaks into quiet laughter, then brings one finger up to his lips, glancing over to the crib, shushing himself and his partner alike. Nodding his agreement again, he smooths his hand back over Lionel's hair, "Can you imagine a toddler in a ranger camp or with the Outriders? This is going to be utter chaos."
Lionel snorts. "And our sexy, sexy bodies," he admits with a smirk. Then he breathes out another slow sigh, it whooshing past his lips. "Yeah… we're going to have to conside that. I mean, Rebecca makes it work. I'm sure that we can, too." That does make him shift a bit, pausing a bit. "So… will we continue to keep up both here and the bungalow back at Arborenin? Two nurseries?"
"No." He shakes his head, pointing to the well-loved sippy-cup he brought along too and beckoning for it to be handed over. When it's passed along, he takes a sip of the… is that whiskey inside? "No, we'll definitely have to choose one place to stay." He offers over the sippy cup, "So. You want to stay here, I want to stay in Arboren. Either way, we'll both defend both places. And, we both know that I'll move here if it comes down to a baby. So my best bet is to arrange a deal with you now. What sort of deal do you think I should try to arrange?"
Lionel takes the sippy-cup, and sniffs it. Then he blinks. "Last resort?" He asks over toward Jeremy before he takes a sip from the cup, breathing out a heavy sigh. He then considers his husband's questions, and he grimaces a bit as he folds his arms across his knees. "I don't really know, Jere…" He takes another sip from the well-loved sippy-cup before he hands it back toward Jeremy. "You should probably arrange a deal that makes us both happy, where neither of us feels guilty… think you can do that?"
Jeremy laughs softly at the reaction to the sippy-cup, nodding his head, "Last resort. It worked for me and my sister, and we turned out just fine." He takes the cup back, taking a sip, "I was just going to suggest some kind of wager. But I don't think either of us would be happy with living in a third location, and unfortunately, the Caravan isn't always close to a Waygate, so we don't have access to both places all the time." He smiles just a touch, "If this was easy, we would have figured it out already."
Lionel breathes out a deep sigh, scratching at his chest as he considers Jeremy's words. The Rovehn Knight might be a bit impulsive at times, but he really does spend quite a bit of time mulling this one over. Finally he looks up to meet Jeremy's familiar storm-blue eyes. "I guess we'll have about ten months to figure it out." He offers a small crack of a smile. He leans forward to pull his husband into a sudden on-set kiss. He holds gently to the back of his head so that when the kiss ends they remain ever-close to one another. "Maybe we become one of those families that lives half the year on Arborenin and the other half at the Caravan."
Jeremy leans in to return that kiss, the fingers of his casted hand brushing back along his hair, the other hand keeping the sippy-cup held up and out of the way. Watching his husband for an inch or so away once their lips part, he murmurs a soft response, "And that's why I love you…" a teasing touch spreads across his grin, "…because you're so logical." Wrapping his casted arm around Lionel's neck, he leans his brow lightly against Lionel's, "And just stay one place or the other for the first six months so there's just one nursery? At a time, at least?"
"I love you too," Lionel whispers to Jeremy just as a smile starts to build at his lips. Then he releases a slow exhale, rolling his shoulders back before he rests his forehead against Jeremy's. He nods his head just enough to convey agreement. He starts to grin slowly. "Yeah… I mean… I suppose we could spend the first six months at Arborenin…" He grunts a bit, though he does flash a broad grin. "Just because you'll take great pleasure is carrying a baby around the woods on your back."
Jeremy's grin spreads wider, "And because my parents would be around to keep an eye on him or her, and because my sister would be there to be a babysitter." His fingers toy with the hair at the back of Lionel's neck, "And once he or she is old enough, you can take him or her riding." He straightens up a touch as Sophia moves a bit in her crib, straightening up a little to look at the baby, then sits back on the couch, worming one arm around his husband's shoulders, "Have you thought about names?"
Lionel chuckles softly, particularly at Jeremy's sensitive attention toward Sophia. He allows his fussing for the most part until he settles back down. He leans against his partner's frame, settling against him with a familiar comfort. He breathes out a steady exhale, actually sinking into the couch a bit more. "I haven't… I haven't even thought about genders… maybe a girl." He eyes Sophia. "Girls are okay, right?"
Jeremy takes another sip from the sippy-cup, shaking it a little to see how much is left. He offers it out to Lionel, "One more, then the last for Sof' if she wakes up." He nods slowly, "I haven't thought either. Girl's are okay, until there's some dirty old man like you chasing after them." Leaning over to press a kiss to Lionel's temple, he adds in, "But I suppose a boy wouldn't help that either. I suppose I don't much care if we have a boy or a girl. But I was thinking Tate if he's a boy. And maybe Emma if she's a girl."
Lionel chokes a bit at his laughter once he has had his last swallow of whiskey before he offers the cup back so that Jeremy can keep what remains safe for Sophia. He shakes his head. "Yeah, I think I might have been one of those dirty — not old — men that fathers were worried about." He rubs at his jaw and chin thoughtfully. "Maybe we just let fate decide, like other parents would. Shake them all up and see what sticks." He smirks a bit. "I think a girl would be… an interesting challenge for me."
Jeremy's eyes go white, and the faintest hint of rustling leaves spreads out around him. The sippy-cup goes floating over alongside the crib, setting down with a slight wobble, and then his aura fades and his gray-blue eyes return. The Arboren drawls softly, "Not old compared to me, or in general, but compared to someone born ten or eleven months from now… you're a dirty old goat." He squeezes his husband's shoulders, "And I wouldn't dream of doing anything but letting the Gods decide."
Lionel watches the sippy-cup float away, and he starts to smirk. "You realize that there's a chance that we will end up with one just like you, right?" He states dryly. "You're going to have to let me talk with your parents, because I'll need lots of hints on how to deal with an Awakened child." He sags down into the couch once more, and then he blinks as he realizes something. "We just made a decision about our shapeless, nameless child, didn't we?"
Jeremy shrugs a little at the commentary, "I wasn't too bad. Although I guess that means that my kid's going to be trouble." Wrinkling up his nose, he leans his temple against Lionel's, looking across to Sophia's crib, "Of course, since you were such trouble, we might be fine, right?" Smiling gently and letting his eyes close, he nods his head against that of his husband, "I just hope it's the hypothetical right one…"
"Rebecca should be here soon to pick up Sophia," Lionel breathes out a sigh before he rests back against the couch and his husband. There is a long and quiet moment from the Rovehn Knight, and then he starts to snore. He sags his head onto Jeremy's shoulder, arms crossed heavily at his chest.
Jeremy nods his head at the sigh, and then the snore causes him to laugh softly. Once more, his eyes go white and tendrils of foliage lift away from him. At the other end of the sofa, a folded blanket rises up and floats across the room to his waiting hand. Spreading it out, he tucks the corners around his husband, murmuring, "And I'll be right here waiting to hand her back."