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G’raha couldn’t look either of them in the eyes, but the only other place to look was at the baby in his arms. He knew he couldn’t stare at the ground, so he forced to look at the Warrior of Light’s bemused expression and Estinien’s half confused, half annoyed expression.
“… I know you have a lot of questions.” He started.
“Well, you’re the one who called us here,” the Warrior of Light, Ahrora Xue, said. “So I would assume you should start the explanation before we ask questions!” She bent down to look at the child. Gods, she was a full blood Miqo’te, right? She was already tall the first time they met, but now she was only an ilm shorter than Estinien. “I assume that you found her in the tower, since we’re here?” Indeed, they were standing near the Crystal Tower, not near the Rising Stones but close enough that they could run over if needed.
“Yes, she was in one of the chambers I had not known of until now,” he said, looking down at the baby as she shifted in his arms, a bit haphazardly swaddled in what was usually his scarf. She was a Seeker of the Sun Miqo’te, with dark skin, slightly duller red eyes than G’raha’s (but still noticeably red), and snow white hair and ears (and tail, but that was swaddled in the scarf). She was surprisingly well behaved right now, mostly just looking up at Ahrora and not really reacting either way. “She doesn’t look like a newborn, but she couldn’t have been inside the tower for long. From what I can tell, she seems healthy.”
“She looks like a healthy baby,” Ahrora said. “Looks a bit like Cahya, actually!” G’raha was vaguely aware of Ahrora’s multiple younger siblings, he could only assume this name was another sister. “Though, you did a pretty poor job swaddling her. I’m no good at it either, that’s something my mom does.”
“W-Well, I was in a bit of a hurry,” he said, looking away. “I wanted to get you to her as soon as possible, because I know you have more experience with babies. My only experience raising a child was Lyna, and she was already able to walk and talk on her own by the time I took her in.”
“So why did you feel the need to call me out to help as well?” Estinien asked, finally speaking up. G’raha could not look him in the eyes, but looking at the baby in his arms was also just as nerve-wracking.
“I wanted you to name her.”
“Why?” The tone wasn’t trying to be harsh, but harsh sounding just seemed to be Estinien’s default. G’raha took a breath, he couldn’t hide it much longer.
“Because she’s your daughter.”
Estinien opened his mouth to say something, but he almost froze, closing his mouth as he looked at the child again. Indeed, the baby girl had the same shade of white hair that he did, despite her being a red eyed Miqo’te. He looked, first at the child, then at G’raha, then back at the child, who seemed to also be interested in him now. G’raha hoped that he didn’t have to explain it out loud, at least not in front of Ahrora. Ahrora, for her part, just had the good grace for her jaw to drop without being too loud.
“G’raha Tia if you’re implying what I think you’re implying I’m going to scream once we put the baby down somewhere she can’t hear me.” Ahrora’s tone of voice was between laughing out loud and barely restrained contempt.
“How.” Estinien phrased this less as a question and more as a demand for an explanation.
“… Ahrora and I had to examine a piece of Allegan technology, and at first I wasn’t sure what it was,” G’raha started. “Ahrora was pulled away for an unrelated matter, and I was left alone with it. I accidentally activated it. It didn’t appear to do much at first, but after I had more time to examine it, and reading my own notes, I realized it was a…” The words stopped in his throat, and he quietly cleared it. “It was a sensor that specifically looked for if an Allegan royal had… consummated.” He felt his face heating up. He felt like he shouldn’t say these words in front of the child.
Estinien probably didn’t fully grasp the technology, but judging by his shocked expression, he seemed to understand what the implication was. Ahrora wheezed out a sound of disbelief.
“You two?!?? When?!?!?” Ahrora was trying to be quiet for the child’s sake, but it was a bit hard when hit with such information.
“It was only once,” Estinien said, making both adult Miqo’tes eyes go wide, Ahrora’s with shock and G’raha’s with embarrassment. The baby shifted in G’raha’s arms again, and he looked down.
“I’m not asking for your help to raise her,” G’raha said, “but it didn’t feel right to hide her existence from you. And even if you don’t help me, she is also your daughter. It only feels right that you at least name her.” A second of silence passed, as the baby seemed to settled down again.
“She takes more after you,” Estinien said. “Have you thought about what to name her?”
“It… doesn’t feel right for me to name her,” G’raha admitted. “Traditionally, a female Seeker child would be given a first name, one that starts with her clan’s designation, and the last name of the man who sired her… who should be a nunh. The problem is that I’m, well, not a nunh, so I feel naming her is somehow -”
“But you are her father,” Estinien said. “She is visibly a Miqo’te, she has your eyes, and you were the one to find her. You have every right to name her.” He still seemed to be in a bit of disbelief that the child in G’raha’s arms was his child too. G’raha considered it for a moment.
“… She’ll have my name as her last,” he decided. “But I still want you to give her a first name.” G’raha finally stepped forward, and carefully held out the baby girl to him. Estinien bent down and took the child into his arms, Ahrora running under him and hovering her arms under his.
“I’m not going to drop her,” he rolled his eyes at the Warrior of Light, who pouted.
“I have never seen you handle any kids before - no Alphinaud doesn’t count - so I do not trust you to hold a baby.” Ahrora kept hovering her hands under his, and Estinien sighed, looking at the child again. The baby seemed a bit fussed to have been moved, making a small noise of disapproval when she transferred arms, but settled down when Estinien stopped moving her. She seemed to lean into Estinien’s chest a bit, as if she knew this was her other parent. The Azure Dragoon seemed to consider her for a moment, and G’raha spoke up.
“I don’t expect you to come up with a name on the spot, obviously,” he quickly added. “She’s -“
“Giselle.”
“What?”
“Her name. Giselle.” Estinien looked back up at G’raha. “She might be visibly a Miqo’te, but she is half-Elezen. It’s only fair that if I name her, she will be given an Ishgardian name.”
“Giselle… that’s such a cute name,” Ahrora smiled, removing one of her hovering hands to boop Giselle on the nose. Giselle made a small noise, and Estinien glared at her. “Don’t be mad at me, Jelly’s just tired!”
“Do not give my daughter such an idiotic nickname,” Estinien said. G’raha wanted to speak up, saying he thought it was cute, but he was still rolling the name around in his head. Giselle… it did not escape him that the name Estinien picked out started with a G, which is what her name would’ve started with in a traditional Seeker’s name. Did he consider it? Or was it just a coincidence?
“Well, let’s put her down to sleep, then. Do you wanna bring her to the Rising Stones, or do you want me to call mom to see if he has an extra swaddle? I don’t think he would mind watching over her!”
“She’s not leaving my sight.” Estinien turned his back to them. “We will take her to the Rising Stones. You can decide what we will do from there.”
“R-right,” G’raha said. “But… how will we explain her to the Scions?”
“We tell them the truth. We tell them she’s our daughter.” Estinien had said this so matter-of-factly that it caught G’raha a bit off guard.
“They’ll surely have questions, though, if we don’t offer an explanation.”
“They don’t need one,” Estinien said. “I don’t care what wild conclusions they draw. All they need to know is that she is our daughter, Giselle Raha.”
“… right,” G’raha said, straightening his shoulders a bit more. Her name has such a pretty ring to it, he thought to himself. “Hopefully there won’t be too many questions.”
“I’m gonna go on ahead and call mom,” Ahrora said, already fishing out the linkshell. “He can at least give you both a crash course on how to take care of a baby.” With that, the Warrior of Light dashed off, though G’raha saw her not so subtly move her hand to her mouth, presumably to scream into it first. Which left Estinien and G’raha alone, with their baby girl, Giselle.
“… if I had known that a child was a possibility, I would’ve stuck to your mouth that night,” Estinien mumbled. G’raha’s eyes widened again.
“Not in front of the child!” He scolded.
“It’s not like she can understand us.” He sighed, bending back down to hand the child back to G’raha. The Miqo’te took Giselle back into his arms, who once again fussed at being moved. “Take your time coming back, I won’t say a word on her existence until they see her.”
“Thank you,” G’raha said. Estinien hadn’t moved, so the two of them were in a very rare position; eye level with each other. G’raha looked into the stormy grey eyes of the Elezen, searching for any indication of regret. But he found none.
Instead, in the next second, Estinien pressed his lips against G’raha’s.
G’raha was shocked for a moment, but just as soon as the kiss started, it was over, leaving G’raha, once again, wide eyed. Estinien didn’t wait for a reaction. He simply walked away.
G’raha stood there for a second, not sure what to say, do, or even think. But Giselle let out a small cry, and it snapped him back into reality. After one more adjustment in his arms, he walked forward, careful to not jostle Giselle around, towards the Rising Stones, and the myriad of questions he was sure the others would have.