Work Text:
The Rest of the Crows meet Milo
“Jesper...is that...a goat?” Wylan tilts his head at the animal Jesper has cradled in his arms. He’s whispering softly to the creature as he rocks it back and forth.
He turns to Kaz for an explanation and Dirtyhands just looks incredibly put upon while Nina and Inej step forward to koo over the goat too.
“Is this some barbarian ritual?” Matthias asks gruffly as he stares at them, clearly as lost as Wylan is by the new addition to their crew.
Kaz sighs and pushes past them all to get to his desk, as if he wasn’t the one who stormed into the room and pushed the goat into Jesper’s arms as the sniper let out a joyful cry of “MILO!”
Wylan is trying very hard not to be jealous of the goat.
He’s mostly certain he succeeds. Jesper brings the goat over to him and, with more gravity than Wylan feels is owed to this situation, presents the goat to Wylan. “This is Milo. He is my son. He saved my life. He’s a brave goat and deserves all the cuddles because he is Milo.”
Used to Jesper’s over the top drama, Wylan stares at the goat, feeling like he’s missed something somewhere along the way. Matthias beside him isn’t doing much better except he’s looking at Jesper like he’s lost his mind.
Wylan reaches out a hand, tentatively to pet the goat and instead ends up with the goat in his arms. He stands paralyzed as the goat - Milo - tries to reorient himself in Wylan’s arms and he struggles not to let the goat slip through his arms. He ends up with Milo’s legs sprawled at odd angles as the goat bleats in a panic. This is why he could never be trusted with children.
The rest of the room is chuckling at his misfortune and even Kaz looks mildly amused.
“Here.” Jesper resituates Milo in Wylan’s arms.
Milo settles down as Jesper continues to coo at him. Wylan is now close enough to hear him praising the goat and telling him what a good boy he is.
“It’s a goat,” Matthias states, brows still furrowed in conclusion. Obviously he’s still too new to understand that you just have to roll with whatever happens.
“His name is Milo,” Jesper says, his tone light but his glare menacing.
“Jesper!” Kaz shouts, calling him back to the map laid out on Kaz’s desk.
Wylan is petrified, too worried that any movement might unsettle Milo and cause him some grievous injury. That could happen to babies, right? Does the same hold true for goats?
Matthias mutters in Fjerdan and then looks to Wylan. “I don’t get it.”
He attempts a shrug with the goat in his arms. “It’s Milo.”
“Who is a goat…”
“And Jesper’s son,” Wylan repeats from the original introduction. He can see that Matthias is ever going to get there while stuck looking for logic so he just shrugs and attempts to mimic the swag Jesper had earlier. On one swing he catches Jesper’s eye and smiles nervously. Jesper grins. There’s heat in his eyes as he winks, and Wylan can feel his cheeks heat up. He looks back down at Milo and smiles at the goat.
He guesses Milo isn’t so bad. He’s actually kind of cute.
“I still don’t understand why we need a goat,” Matthais protests.
Kaz sighs. “Well, I finally got Jesper an explosives expert. Now he can’t ask me for anything ever again.”