Chapter Text
“Hey kids?” Hal’s voice called out, loud enough without shouting that he had to be using Thaumaturgy to make the sound carry throughout the house. “Can you all come down here a minute?”
Azune looked up from where he was lying on Alogar’s floor copying down letters (his penmanship was getting neater, despite the awkward position) to see the teen putting his own homework aside to venture down to the living room. Al looked at him for a second, head tilted, before prodding him in the ribs with his toes. Gently, more of a nudge than kick.
“That means you too, ‘zune,” Alogar said. His tone said that this was an obvious reminder, something Azune should have known, but he didn’t sound too annoyed. That was good.
“Oh. Okay.” Azune hastily sat up, tucking his notebook and pencil under the bed where they wouldn’t be stepped on. He followed Alogar out into the hallway towards the stairs.
“I’m in the middle of something!” Shadia shouted back at Hal past them.
“It’s just a minute, Shadi, then you can go back to whatever it is,” Halandil replied patiently, if loudly, though no longer amplifying his voice. Apparently, the younger teen took this to mean that the faster she got down, the faster she could go back up, because she suddenly bolted out of her room and ran down the stairs past Azune and Alogar. Azune was glad he’d gotten more used to sudden movements and loud noises that didn’t mean danger since living here, or else he probably would have jumped out of his skin. He still instinctively froze and clutched the banister and couldn’t continue walking until Alogar nudged his shoulder.
They reached the downstairs to find Hal in the kitchen, where he seemed to be in the final stages of assembling a snack for everyone. He brought a plate of cheese and crackers over to the table and sat down with a gesture for everyone else to do the same. Hero was already plunked down in a chair by his side, making her favorite horse toy gallop along the edge of the table. She quickly dropped it in favor of reaching out for a piece of cheese.
“I’ve got something I wanted to talk about with you all,” Hal announced the beginning of the family meeting. Perhaps that wasn’t the right word for the gathering, though, since Azune was there too. “My friend Ayilna, you might’ve met her, she plays cello for the theater sometimes, has just had a baby. Unfortunately, though, it was a hard birth and her health isn’t so good now. She’s having trouble taking care of both herself and the child. I was talking with her, and we thought it would really help them get a good start if the baby could come stay with us for a little while so we can care for them and she can rest.”
“How long is a little while?” Shadia asked.
“Probably a week, maybe two,” Hal said. “I don’t think I can say no to my friend, because she really does need the help, but I wanted to talk to you all first. Shadia, Al, I’m sure you two remember when Hero was little. Infants can take a lot of attention and can make a lot of noise. If you think that having a baby in the house is going to be too much, I can talk to Elodie about any of you staying there, or maybe with the Lloys if anyone is in town.”
“Do I have to decide right now?” Shadia asked.
“No. I’ll be bringing the baby home tonight, so you can decide after you’ve met them, or if it gets to be too much later on.”
“Okay. Is that it?” Her tone was distinctly impatient.
“Well, yes,” Hal said.
“Okay.” Shadia was on her feet and back upstairs before he had a chance to say anything else.
Hal looked a bit startled for a second, then sighed. “Alright. Guess that’s one way for the conversation to go.”
“Well, if you said you’re doing this anyway, I don’t think she thought she needed to say anything else,” Alogar pointed out.
“I guess she didn’t. Do you have any other thoughts about it, Al?”
The teen shrugged. “Not really. How old’s the kid?”
“Brand new. Only a few days old.”
“When Hero was that old, she wasn’t really loud, was she? Her lungs were too small.”
“Yeah. That’s pretty true. But it won’t necessarily be the case with this baby. Could be a loud kid.”
“Louder than Hero is now?” Alogar teased his little sister. She stuck her tongue out at him, but he just shrugged again. “Okay then. I’ve got no objections.”
“We do need to clean the house a lot before I bring them in, since babies this little can get sick easily. Would you be up to helping me with that?”
“Do I have to clean my room?” Alogar apparently hated cleaning his room. Azune hadn’t known this before he was invited to come share the space, sleeping on his floor since he struggled to sleep in a room alone, and he wouldn’t have accepted if he knew how much of an inconvenience it was for the teen. As it was, though, Alogar had adjusted quickly to be content in letting just one side of the room become a disaster, and rarely accidentally threw clothes on Azune’s head.
“No, just the public areas of the house where the baby will be. If you could take the rugs outside to beat them out and sweep the floors, that would be most helpful, I think.”
“... after I finish my homework, or instead?”
“I’ll let it be instead if you don’t have time for both, since I’m bringing the baby home tonight and need this done first. I’ll explain to your teacher why you didn’t do it if needed.”
“Alright, then. Hero, you want to help?”
“With the broom? When we put the rugs over the clothesline and thwack them?” The younger girl asked excitedly. She didn’t wait for an answer. “Yes, yes!” The two of them went off to the living room, and Azune started to stand to help. Hero wasn’t big enough to really help move the rugs, and they would be easier to carry with two people. Hal held up a hand to delay him, and Azune paused in a half crouch for a second before lowering himself back to the chair.
“Azune, how do you feel about all this?” Hal asked. It was odd, to Azune, that he was so careful to ask him about it, when Hero had been let go without adding her opinion.
“Your friend needs help. You’re very kind to offer to help them.”
“Well, getting to spend time with a baby is hardly a hardship,” Hal said with a smile, despite what he had just warned the kids about with the baby needing lots of attention and making noise. “Have you ever been around a newborn?”
Azune shook his head. There were some babies in the village he grew up in, but only when he was also really little, and he didn’t remember it well.
“Okay. Well, you’re welcome to spend time with me and the baby if you wish, but please don’t feel any obligation if you don’t want to. And the offer to stay with Elodie if the noise gets to be too much applies to you too. She says you’re a very nice young man and invited you specifically to stay with her if needed.”
“Oh. Um, that’s very nice, but I don’t want to be a problem.”
“And we don’t want it to be a problem for you with the noise. I know you have trouble sleeping anyway, sometimes. So if the baby makes it too much worse, please let me know, okay? Teens need their sleep.”
“Okay,” Azune agreed. It wasn’t usually noise that was a problem for him with being able to sleep. Moreso his own thoughts. A baby shouldn’t be a problem in comparison. “Do you want me to help clean anything?”
“If you want to. Would you help me pull the crib out of the attic and wash the sheet for it?”
“Of course.”
That evening, Hal returned to the house with a wicker baby carrier held close to his body. Azune had continued cleaning in the meantime, wiping down every surface he could find in the kitchen and bathroom and making sure all the blankets were shaken out outside along with the rugs. It wasn’t as good as washing them, but it would hopefully do on short notice. Hal had said little babies could get sick easily, but no one in the house had been ill recently, so there wouldn’t be any lingering miasma. Was plain dust a problem too, though? Just how vulnerable were infants?
Azune was alone in the downstairs of the house when he glanced through the window to see Hal approaching up the street. Shadia was still in her room doing Ancients knew what, and Alogar and Hero had finished with the rugs but continued playing outside. Last Azune saw, Hero had been chasing her brother around with the broom. Which left him to open the door, so Hal wouldn’t have to manage the handle and the baby basket and risk dropping something important.
“Hey Azune,” Hal said when he came in. His voice had gone even softer than it was when he helped Azune calm down after a nightmare. He held the wicker carrier up to let him see inside. “Meet Namai Areil.”
Between the cushioned sides of the basket lay a tiny baby. Much smaller than Azune had ever seen before. They had skin the color of late-summer clover and thin dark hair across their head and the most perfect little ears that came to a point towards the back. They were asleep when he first looked, swaddled in a blanket, but as Azune watched, their face scrunched up and the tiniest wail escaped them.
“Oh, what timing, little one!” Hal cooed at the baby. “You sleep all the walk here and then wake just in time to cry at Azune? That's no way to make introductions.” He set the wicker carrier down on the couch and then bent to pick the baby up out of it. Azune watched him carefully as he moved, trying to memorize the way he lifted the baby up and onto his shoulder, how he bent and straightened his knees apparently instinctively to bounce the baby slightly. Namai calmed remarkably swiftly, their cries petering out if not stopping entirely.
“You're so good at that,” Azune remarked.
“Believe me, it's a skill that comes from lots of practice. And you have to be lucky too. Sometimes nothing will quiet a crying baby.”
“Oh.” Azune remembered his parents telling him once that Mayali had been a very fussy baby, and they'd worried when he was born that he would be the same and they'd wake each other up or start the other one crying all the time. It hadn't turned out that way, though. Apparently he rarely cried for no reason, and when he did, all you had to do was pick him up or put him near his sister to make him stop.
“Do you want to hold them?” Hal asked. Azune jolted.
“I- I don't know how. I don't want to do it wrong.”
“I don't think you're going to do it wrong. I'll talk you through it, okay? The most important thing with a baby this small is to support their head, since the muscles in their neck aren't strong enough to hold it up themselves yet. Well, actually, the most important thing is not dropping them, but I suspect you knew that.”
Azune caught that that was a joke too late to react to it, and knew his expression remained confused and perhaps a bit terrified.
“I need to wash my hands first,” he said instead and darted off to the bathroom. Normally he always washed his hands in cold water, because while there wasn't a shortage of water in Dol-Makjar because of the river, it did still require fuel to heat it and he didn't want to cost Hal more money than he already did. Now, though, he washed his hands in hot water, because the healers always said that got them cleaner when he helped out in the infirmary tent. And they had to be extra clean if he was going to touch the baby. If the house had to be clean, he had to be even more so. He didn't want to get the little one sick or stain them with the blood he sometimes saw coating his hands when he went too long without sleeping.
Hal was still standing by the couch when he returned, swaying slightly with Namai cradled in his arms. He looked so perfectly contented, smiling down at the baby, that Azune hesitated to interrupt the scene. Seeing the infant seem to instantly slot into the home just reminded him of how little he himself fit. But when Hal looked up and saw Azune, his smile didn't falter, even for a second.
“Why don't you come sit down first, and I'll pass them to you then,” Hal said. “That’s the least nerve-wracking way to hand someone a baby for the first time, I’ve found.”
“I… okay,” Azune agreed, not wanting to argue. “You’re sure your friend is okay with me holding her baby?”
“I’m sure. She knows I have children, and her only request related to that was I don’t let Hero hold Namai or play too near to them without very close supervision. I asked about you teens helping me out, though, and she said she trusted me to know whether you were responsible enough. And I say you, of all of you kids, are definitely responsible enough. I can tell you right now that Alogar wouldn’t have thought about washing his hands first, and I don’t think Shadia has the slightest interest.”
Oh, so Hal just wanted help with the baby and thought Azune was the best option. That made it make sense. And he was happy to help. He sat down on the couch.
“Here you are, just like that.” Before Azune could process it, Hal had situated little Namai in his arms. He clearly had a lot of practice handing babies to reluctant friends to hold, for he’d done it quickly and steadily, without jolting either baby or grown-up. For a second Azune froze in terror, not wanting to move and risk hurting them. Namai didn’t squirm, though, and was apparently surprised enough by being held by someone else to stop crying entirely. They peered up at Azune with dark eyes and a furrowed little expression on their tiny face.
Now that Azune was holding the baby, it wasn’t as scary as he expected. The infant’s head was tucked into the crook of his elbow, their body supported against his forearm with their bottom in his hand. They were so little that one arm was more than enough to support them, leaving Azune’s other hand free to instinctively move to cup their outer side so they couldn’t roll out of his hold. Even through the fabric of the blanket wrapped around between them, he could feel that they were very warm. But so light.
Namai's arms had gotten untucked from the blanket sometime during the transfer, letting the baby reach around themself with uncoordinated movements. Azune stretched his hand out where it supported their side, and a teeny little hand latched onto his thumb. He noticed the baby was missing about half of their ring and pinky fingers on that hand, but their grip was still surprisingly strong.
“Oh, yeah, don’t worry about their fingers,” Hal said, bending over and stroking a finger down the back of Namai’s hand. This made the baby squirm, and Azune instinctively clutched them tighter to his chest. “Easy, it’s okay, just a little shifting. And they’re not hurt; their hand was just born that way.”
“Okay.” Azune hadn’t been worried. Or, well, that wasn’t really true. He had been a little worried about what, or who, could have hurt a baby that had only been in the world a few days, but it was also clear that if it had been an injury, it had been healed, since unbroken skin stretched across the top of the shortened fingers and Namai didn’t seem to be favoring the hand or in any pain.
“You doing alright?” Hal asked. “You’re holding them a little more tightly than you need to, and I don’t want your arms to start cramping up. Here, let the weight hang on your bones instead of your muscles, like when you’re carrying something heavy.”
“They’re not heavy, though.”
“No, I know, but there’s still no reason to be more tense than you need to,” Hal said. He reached out and guided Azune’s shoulder down a little, letting the baby’s weight down more onto his lap than his arm. “Is that better?”
Azune nodded. “Yeah, it’s good.” He forced himself to not tense up his arm that was supporting Namai again, but compensated for the resulting feeling of instability by keeping his other hand firmly around their outer side.
“Okay. Are you alright to hold them for a little bit while I put some stuff away? It’s okay if you don’t want to, I can put them back in the basket and they’ll be perfectly safe in there.”
“No, I can- I can hold them,” Azune said. Despite it being rather nerve-wracking to hold something so vulnerable, he found he didn’t really want to put the baby down.
“Okay. Just give me a holler if you want to pass them off at any point. And again, if you need to shift them, you can do that, just make sure to support their head.”
“Alright.” Azune would absolutely not be trying to move this baby until he had been directly shown how, and he didn’t understand why Hal apparently trusted him to intuit how to do that without hurting the child. But, it was also oddly nice to be thought so safe, even if he didn’t understand. It was an even more extreme example of how Hal apparently trusted Azune to be around his kids, even little Hero. Namai was even smaller and more vulnerable than her, and no less precious. He vowed again to live up to that trust. Namai had been sent here to be looked after, and Azune would ensure no harm came to them during that time if it was the last thing he did.