Chapter Text
As more time passed, and Grian got older, Doc found that Grian really was a little menace, like he had predicted when Xisuma had come over to meet Grian for the first time.
He was able to coo, chirp, trill, whistle, purr, and cheep, which appeared to be the full range of his bird calls, though Doc had a feeling that there would probably be a few more when he was older.
Grian was also starting to toddle around, which had prompted a hurried extra babyproofing check, putting up all of his redstone that could be easily reached, made sure that there was something soft on the ground next to the arms of chairs, not wanting Grian to fall and hurt himself when he inevitably ended up perching on them.
His talons had come in, and Doc’s arm and face was now littered with tiny scars from Grian’s struggles to escape the horrid bath time, though, when Keralis had come for his weekly visit and saw the state of his arms, had mentioned that talon trimmers would probably be a good investment for him, something that Doc was quick to buy.
The purchase of the talon trimmers, paired with one of Xisuma’s semi-frequent visits (mostly to avoid doing Admin course work and to see his nephew), had brought about the current situation that Doc, Grian, and Xisuma were in.
Doc had filled up the small tub that he bathed Grian in, knowing that his actual tub was oceans too large for his Baby Bird, and he held the talon trimmers in one hand, while Xisuma held Grian similar to how one would hold a bird to prevent them from flying away.
“Alright Grian, here’s how this is going to go,” Doc started, “it’s either we trim your talons, or it’s into the basin of despair.”
Now, Doc was, of course, exaggerating a bit, but, considering how much Grian hated bath time, it wasn’t too much of a stretch, so, when Grian hesitantly stretched out a taloned foot, Doc internally cheered, carefully trimming the sharp claws so that he would hopefully prevent himself from getting too many more scars for the time being, before he would have to repeat this process all over again.
Once that had been completed though, Grian was released from Xisuma’s hold, allowing the small avian to bolt out of the room, as best as he could with what little mobility he had, leaving X and Doc alone in the bathroom for the moment.
“Well, that didn’t go too badly,” Xisuma commented, making Doc hum in agreement.
“It didn’t, which makes me worried. Hopefully though, Grian won’t mind having his talons trimmed, though I doubt it.”
“Fair enough. What time is it though? I have a lecture at half past two today, and my comm is in the living room.”
“Uhhh, it’s ten past two.”
“Shoot! I’m going to be late! I’ve gotta go! Thanks for letting me help out! See you later, Doc!” With that, X bolted out of the room, only pausing to scoop up his comm and give Grian a hug before he left, vanishing out of the door in seconds, leaving Doc gaping a bit at the rapid departure, and Grian to try to climb up on the couch, now wanting to take a nap after the horrors of having his talons trimmed.
A few moments later, and he was joined on the couch, however, in his sleepy and upset state, the only thing he did was send a sleepy side eyed glare at his Papa, mad that he was threatened with the evil water.
Doc just looked at Grian in confusion, before he asked quietly, “why are you side-eying me? What have I done?”
Grian, of course, didn’t answer, not even cheeping, before the tug of sleep pulled him under, leaving a very confused, and slightly upset Doc to just look at Grian, before he stood up and scooped Grian into his arms and brought him to his room, tucking him in carefully.
Though, when he had tucked Grian in and returned to the living room to tidy up, he was left to wonder just what he had done to deserve his son side-eyeing him.
‘Could it have been because of the talon trimming? The threat of bath time? Not giving him cuddles?’
The longer he went without answers, the more distressed he became, before he gave up on cleaning entirely, and decided to check in on his son, remaining by his side until he woke up from his nap, only to immediately scoop him up to give him as many cuddles as he could before Grian started squirming to escape, wanting to be let down and wander the house.
***
Of course, there were many incidents that happened while Grian was growing up, anything from Grian managing to go outside in the rain, get completely covered in mud, and then have to take a bath, much to the avian’s displeasure, and Doc’s pain, as Grian tried desperately to escape the tub the moment he was put in it, with Doc doing his best to clean the mud covered and rain chilled Baby Bird, ending with Doc’s arms being covered in bandages, and a disgruntled Grian.
There was also all of the biting incidents when Grian started teething, the most notable of them being when Doc had been sitting on the couch, Grian chirping happily to himself as he played with one of his plushies, a frog that had been a gift from Bdubs, when his attention was caught by Doc’s hand, and, when the hand was moved, Doc having noticed his son’s eyes on it, Grian lunged for it, only to end up falling off of the couch, making Doc panic as he had fallen backwards and onto his wings.
Thankfully, Grian had been fine, and had immediately grabbed his Papa’s hand and started biting it, causing Doc to let out a hiss of pain, and carefully extract his hand, replacing it with a recently bought teether toy.
Unfortunately, Grian wasn’t always so lucky to escape hurting himself when he inevitably fell, as, one day, when Doc had been working on one of his redstone projects, a small one so he was inside, Grian heard the clicking that came from the small device, Doc having been working on a small doorbell type thing for a client, and had immediately gone to find the source of the clicking.
This ended up with him tripping over his own feet, his tiny wing frantically flapping to try and keep him upright, but he ended up flat on his face, the ensuing thump alerting Doc that something had happened.
By the time Doc had hastily set everything down and rushed out of the room, Grian was still flat on the ground, but he was now sobbing his tiny heart out, prompting Doc to immediately scoop him up in his arms, cradling him with one hand so he could make sure that Grian wasn’t badly injured, before cooing over him and retrieving his frog plushie, holding it out for the sobbing Grian to take, deciding to put a hold on the commission so he could cuddle with his baby.
***
Something that Grian liked to do was hide. He would hide behind things, in an attempt to cause mischief, or he would hide behind his wings if he thought he was in trouble for something.
One of the times he was trying to cause mischief, he had hidden behind a curtain, unaware that his wings were visible.
Of course, Doc knew when his son was trying to cause mischief, so he would always pretend to be looking for him, eyes scanning the room, despite knowing exactly where he was, as he called out for his Baby Bird.
Grian would be constantly chirping and cheeping during the hunt, unable to prevent himself from making the small calls, but Doc always pretended that he couldn’t hear them, until he eventually wandered around the entire room and ended up next to where his son was hiding, calling out happily that he had been found, before scooping him up in his arms, cuddling him to his chest while Grian happily purred and trilled.
Though, when Grian thought he would be in trouble, like the one time he had broken a vase, he always hid behind his wings, curling in on himself to hide away, though Doc would always reassure him that he wasn’t in trouble, nor was Doc mad at him, only wanting to know that his baby was okay.
***
Now, cuddles were very common in the 77 household, Doc taking every opportunity to have his Baby Bird close to him, and Grian craving any physical contact he could get, as avians were a very clingy species, especially when young, so it wasn’t uncommon for Keralis, Xisuma, or Bdubs to show up and find Doc and Grian napping, or just Grian napping while Doc was doing something.
Xisuma had plenty of pictures of this happening, being the one to visit the most, and his favourite picture was of a time when he had come to visit, having completed all of his Admin course work for the week a day early, and found Doc curled protectively around Grian, both sound asleep, when he was going to ask if the creeper goat hybrid wished to do some redstone together, having not worked on redstone with the other in months.
He had, of course, slipped silently inside of Doc’s room, once he had registered just what he was seeing, and placed a blanket over the sleeping pair, before snagging the picture and leaving, deciding that he could return the next day, as he had nothing planned, to ask if Doc wanted to do redstone with him.
Along with cuddles, Grian was prone to sitting, curled up next to his Papa, and, if Doc’s arm was draped over the back of the couch, he would try to grab it, cheeping pathetically if he couldn’t pull it down, so he could be protected by Papa’s arm, something that X made sure to snap a picture of whenever it happened.
***
With Xisuma being the one to visit the most, X is definitely the closest to Grian (besides Doc), there have been a lot of moments that Xisuma has been able to see, or been a part of, that both Doc and X hold close due to how cute they are.
When Grian was just able to walk, and could walk without constantly falling, he would always try to identify where a noise was coming from; Doc couldn’t explain why this was, nor could Keralis, the resident hybrid expert of the small friend group, but Grian always had to know where a sound was coming from.
Once, when Xisuma was coming for a visit, Grian had heard him outside, and, chirping fiercely to scare away possible intruders, made his way over to the door, right as X entered, not having to knock to be let in anymore.
Grian, startled by the sudden appearance, bolts back to Doc, nearly tripping on his feet in his great escape, small, startled chirps spilling from him, making Doc laugh.
“Not so tough now, are you, Baby Bird?” Doc had asked, eyes filled with nothing but fondness as he looked down at his son, now standing by his feet and making grabby hands at his Papa.
“Ah, I see. Uppies are being demanded of me, hmm? Up we come then.”
With Grian secure in his arms, he had then turned his attention to X, apologising for Grian chirping at him, making the Voidwalker laugh, waving it off immediately, and asking how the pair were doing.
This happened a few more times before Grian got used to the sound of Xisuma arriving, and would then run to the door chirping and making grabby hands for his Uncle, much to Xisuma’s delight.
***
Now, something interesting about the 77 family, was the fact that both Doc and Grian didn’t actually wear shoes; Xisuma did as did Keralis and Bdubs (even if the three wasn’t related to either Doc or Grian by blood, they was still firmly a part of the family, Xisuma being the closest to the two, especially with how often he showed up, and the fact that Doc viewed Xisuma as a younger brother), and he liked to try, on occasion, to get Doc to actually wear shoes, just for fun, as he wore protective boots when he was in the Main Hub, but that was about it.
Grian, on the other hand, never wore shoes, hybrid friendly or otherwise, and Xisuma had only tried to get him to wear them once, knowing that he should have a pair like Doc did for when he was in the Main Hub, though he ended up leaving later that day with bandages covering his face as he had tried to get Grian to wear shoes before they had retrimmed his talons, so he had a multitude of small scratches that had to be bandaged; Grian did feel bad, after Doc had bandaged him all up, and chirped out a small apology, before cuddling against his Uncle’s chest, and napping there before the Voidwalker had to leave.
***
Grian had other small quirks that were quick to be discovered by Doc and Xisuma, and one of them was the fact that, when he was being held, if one was to move Grian’s body so it was facing a different direction, his head wouldn’t move, reminding the pair of an owl; they had originally believed that Grian may very well be an owl hybrid due to this small quirk, but, when he got more feathers in as he got older, this theory was disproved, though the quirk remained.
Another of his quirks was the fact that, unlike most hybrids, if one was to wrap Grian burrito style in a blanket, he would be perfectly content; while it worked on animals, hybrids tended to fight against it, due to the fact that they were more Player than animal, and didn’t appreciate being wrapped up unless they were the ones doing the wrapping.
With Grian being content to be wrapped up though, it made trimming his talons earlier (cutting out having to threaten him with a bath), and cuddles more fun as well, which was good as X had a habit of wrapping Grian up in a blanket to bring to Doc, mostly because he found it fun to wrap Grian up as a blanket, affectionately calling his nephew a bird-rito.
***
While Grian preferred to make bird calls to communicate, that didn’t mean that he couldn’t talk- he could, he just didn’t like to.
His first words had been ‘Papa’, and it had happened on a day when Doc was on the couch, stressed out of his mind as he was swamped with commissions, ones that he didn’t want to turn down and now needed to get done, and hadn’t noticed Grian enter the room.
Grian, upon sensing how stressed his Papa was, had promptly climbed up onto the couch, making small rips in the fabric as his talons dug into it for purchase, before scrambling up to hug his Papa, cooing softly, making Doc sigh and nuzzle his son back.
It was in that moment when Grian wanted to try to talk, doing his best to say ‘Papa’, but only managing to get out, “p-paf-pa-pa”, though that was enough for Doc to understand what his son was trying to say.
Immediately sitting up, holding Grian up in the air, he asked, eyes wide, what was that, buddy? Were you going to say papa? Say papa!”
Grian was quick to do as his Papa asked, managing to get out “pa-mf-pa,” much to Doc’s delight.
Shifting to hold Grian against his chest, he cried, “my baby spoke his first words! Yes, I’m your Papa Goat, I am forever you Papa Goat, no matter what happens.”
Of course, he was a tad bit upset that he didn’t have the moment recorded, but he knew that he would be able to hear his son speak again, so he wasn’t too upset by it.
He was quick to tell his friends though, Keralis being the first one to find out, mostly due to the fact that he had arrived only half an hour after Grian had spoken, for his weekly check in.
“Keralis! Grian said his first word!” Doc had cried out the moment Keralis entered the small house.
Gasping in shock, he had been quick to ask what it was, smiling fondly at how proud his friend had sounded at recalling his son’s first word, before making the mistake of asking to hold Grian, having forgotten for a moment that creepers get possessive over their young when they show signs of growing up as it made it easier to teach their young if they were protective and possessive over them; this had happened after Grian had started to try and walk, which was something that Keralis, Xisuma, and Bdubs preferred to not think back on, so Keralis did a quick check on the house before taking his leave.
Though, when Doc wasn’t as protective and possessive over Grian, Xisuma had to come over so he could see his nephew, and when he heard him call Doc, ‘Papa’, he couldn’t help but melt at the sight, purring softly in contentment, as Doc purred while nuzzling a then trilling and chirping Grian, and Bdubs, when he came over, smiled brighter than he had before at the sight, knowing that adopting Grian had been one of the best things that Doc had done, and this was just proving it for him.