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Keeping one hand on the stroller, Gladio watched as Eyra cradled her nephew to her. The little boy had started fussing, limbs pinwheeling and small whimpers leaving him. He’d calmed when she’d scooped him up and now he was cooing at her. “Well, he’s got a favourite,” he chuckled.
“Huh?” she asked, looking up at him before wincing as a baby fist closed on her hair.
He kept chuckling. “Wait, I got it,” he said, putting the brake on and reaching out to her.
Eyra watched him with big eyes as he gently pried the small hand out of her hair. “Thank you,” she said. “I should have put my hair up but I forgot.”
Because she was so excited to see Kol again. They’d been up in Meldacio for a few weeks and she’d wanted to visit her nephew right away when they got back to Lestallum. It hadn’t happened and she’d pouted every day she hadn’t been able to see him. But they’d made plans for today, to take Kol for a couple hours so Eerie could get her cuddles and to give Liv and Nyx a break. Eyra had spent the entire morning practically vibrating around their apartment. He’d barely gotten her to eat before they’d been heading over to her brother’s.
Now their walk had stopped because it was time for more cuddles.
Kol had a hold of his finger now, his other hand gripping Eyra’s shirt. A gurgle left him and the baby gave him a gummy smile.
“Oh, you’re not getting out of this that easy, little man,” he laughed, getting his finger back. “That works on your auntie but not on me.”
Eyra laughed sharply. “Liar,” she murmured. “You love him as much as I do.”
That was true but he just looked at her. She knew it was true but it wasn’t like he was the only one. Kol had everyone wrapped around his little fingers since he’d been born. Probably because it felt like he was the only good thing that had really happened since the sun had disappeared.
“Don’t listen to him,” she cooed to Kol. “You know he loves you.”
He turned back to her, gurgling and cooing as well.
Gladio watched them, smiling as she gently rubbed Kol’s back. “Wanna keep going? We’ve still got to make lunch with your mom.”
“Mm, yeah. Can you pass me his blanket?”
He bent over the stroller, looking for it. Pausing when he heard steps coming toward them, he glanced over his shoulder but went back to searching when he saw it was only an older woman. “There,” he said, finding the blanket with moogles all across it.
“You know the chocobo one was right there,” Eyra said dryly, standing still as he tucked the blanket around the baby.
“And you know the moogle one is better,” he threw back at her.
She laughed, shaking her head at him. “You’re hopeless.”
“And all yours, babe.”
“Oh, you two are too sweet.”
They both stiffened at the voice, turning almost in unison to look. The older woman he’d seen was looking at them both with wide smile on her face.
“He looks good on the pair of you,” she continued. “Congratulations.”
She thought Kol was theirs? He figured it was an easy enough mistake to make but…. “Ah, we aren’t-”
“Thank you,” Eyra said, cutting in and bumping him with her hip. “It’s nice of you to say that.”
Gladio kept his mouth shut as she kept talking to the other woman, answering her questions about Kol. All the while, something twisted in his belly but he wasn’t sure what it was.
Eventually, Eerie was waving goodbye to the lady, gently holding Kol’s wrist so he was the one doing it. “Sorry,” she said to him. “People do that when there’s a baby.”
He grunted softly, unlocking the brake and walking beside her as she started down the path.
“Gladio,” she said after a moment of silence passed between them, “what is it?”
“I don’t know,” he said honestly, rubbing his neck. “Why’d you pretend like Kol was ours?”
She shrugged, kissing the top of the boy’s head and wrinkling her nose when he almost headbutted her in return. “Sometimes it’s easier than trying to explain that he’s my nephew? And it’s honestly a simple mistake that isn’t hurting anyone. For how many people are crammed into Lestallum, the odds of ever seeing her again or having her recognize Kol if he isn’t with us are pretty slim to none.”
“Uh huh.”
“Did it bother you?”
“What?”
“Me pretending Kol was ours. Did that bother you?”
Sucking on his cheek, he thought about it. “Bother isn’t the right word,” he said finally.
“Then what is?”
How was he supposed to know when he only just started feeling it? He shrugged, searching for the right way to put it. “Have you thought about kids?”
Her head jerked around to him. “You mean like us having kids?”
There was a squeak in her voice he hadn’t expected. “Yeah. That.”
“Gladio, I just turned twenty-one a couple months ago.”
“I didn’t mean right now,” he growled. “I just meant…in general.”
Eerie was blinking at him, her mouth moving without anything coming out. She looked away quickly, staring hard at the ground as they kept walking. “I hadn’t,” she admitted. “I mean, we started dating when I was eighteen and I was focused on school and work and you. Then Insomnia fell and it was still work and you and everything else. Now the sun’s gone and….”
“You’re right,” he said quickly, pushing aside whatever that feeling in his gut was. “It’s not something to think about.”
“I didn’t say that.”
Her voice was soft but it still stopped him dead in his tracks. “What?”
She shrugged but he noticed the flush on her cheeks. “I’m not saying right now either,” she stressed, “but since Liv had Kol…I don’t know. I think about it every now and then, usually when I have him which probably doesn’t help but…one day. I mean, we’re still young though and we’ve got time.”
His heart was thumping hard against his ribs and he was having difficulty swallowing. He didn’t know what kind of answer he was expecting her to give him. Hadn’t expected her to actually have thought about it since she’d never brought it up before.
“We haven’t even talked about getting married though. Not that you need to be married to have kids, of course, but we’ve got time. I’m only twenty-one, you’re turning twenty-four in a couple months. There’s plenty of time to talk about having kids…later.”
“Right.”
Grey eyes slid back to him, peeking through long lashes. “Have you thought about it?”
He really hadn’t until right now. He’d been more focused on staying alive and the new training Cor was throwing at him and the others. Even when they’d visited Nyx and Liv, Eerie usually claimed most of the time with the baby so it hadn’t been at the forefront of his mind. Until some lady had complimented them on a baby that wasn’t even theirs. “I am now,” he said honestly.
The flush on her skin deepened and she licked her lips before clearing her throat. “Well, don’t get any ideas right now,” she muttered. “I still want to try to be a doctor and we’ve got things to do before we get involved in any of this baby business.”
“Yeah,” he agreed but his voice sounded weak even to him.
They’d barely started walking before she was slanting a look at him again. “But,” Eerie said slowly, “we could maybe, if you want, talk about it after we give Kol back? Maybe? Just to see what we’re thinking about, not to start planning or anything like that.”
“Yeah,” he said again. She was right, they were still young and they both had a lot on their plates. Adding a child to it would be unfair to all of them when they weren’t at all ready for that change. But they were going to get married at some point and there was no harm in starting to talk about it now.
“Or not. I mean, we’ve got time. We don’t have to do or talk about anything right away. It’s probably just because we have Kol right now and that lady made a mistake.”
That might have started it but he sincerely doubted this feeling was going to go away anytime soon.