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Piotr came on a rainy evening of September.
Leo had brought Emine over, because Jason missed their niece — and sure, he missed Leo too, he supposed.
Jason had baked a cake, that Emine had gulped down in a few seconds — Jason, as always, had been baffled by the show and Leo was just trying to save Jason's carpet from the crumbles and frosting — before she grew bored and decided to draw, and Jason was now sharing with Leo the whereabouts of their new project with Annabeth, and Leo about the ameliorations he'd added to his prostesis.
To sum up, it was an ordinary evening.
Then, something at the door made Jason straighten up, cutting Leo in his ramble, and look at the door. Leo went silent immediately, and tensed.
"I think someone knocked," they said as they got up.
"Emmy would've attacked the door if it did," protested Leo, but he got up too, lifting his daughter and holding her to his chest. Just in case.
Jason opened the door, his hand wrapped around his coin, and saw absolutely nothing but their empty garden being wrenched by rain.
"Nobody," he sighed, and they were about to close the door when Emine yelped and pointed at the welcome mat.
"Baby !" she exclaimed, wriggling in her dad's arms. "Papà, there' a baby !"
Jason looked down and, oh.
"Oh."
They blinked.
"What the f-"
"Shh !!" exclaimed Leo, and he let his daughter go to pick up the baby from the mat. "There's a kid here," he said. "Two !"
Jason looked at the infant, swaddled in multiple layers, then at Leo's face.
"It's got your face," noted Leo, and Jason froze.
Oh.
He'd hoped it wasn't that — that his little escapade a few months ago wasn't the cause.
"Wanna see the baby," whined Emine.
Leo looked down at her, then at Jason. "Yeah, you'll see the baby soon cariño," he told his daughter, then, furiously whispered at Jason : "You slept with a god ?"
Jason blushed sheepishly.
"Oh my gods. This is so funny," said Leo, shaking his head, a smile on his lips. "Congrats ! You don't need to steal my Emmy now that you've got your own sprog."
"You mean that…?"
Jason hadn't thought about that when eight months ago, he'd slept with Somnus after a devastating break up. They'd completely forgotten about it, and hadn't thought about how gods could get pregnant.
Fuck.
"I'm a dad ?" he exclaimed, and maybe that wasn't the thing to do, because the baby woke up and started crying.
Loudly.
Jason had thought they knew what a cryign baby was — he'd babysat Emine when she was less than a year old a few times — but that was nothing compared to that shriek coming out of this infant's lungs.
"Okay, now your turn, new dad," said Leo, and he held the baby for Jason.
He took them, and tried to rock them. The cries grew softer, less loud, but the baby was still crying. Jason felt very awkward like that — he felt like a shit father already, unable to even comfort their baby.
Oh gods, their baby.
He had a child. A baby. Left in their care, for some reason.
"You think you can manage ten minutes with it ? I gottaa get diapers and formula."
Jason gaped at Leo, then looked at the still crying baby. "What ?"
Leo shrugged, putting his coat and his boots on at the same time.
"It's probably hungry ! Or dirty. Or sad. Just keep it close to you. Take off your shirt for skin-to-skin. I'll be back !"
And then, Leo was gone, and Jason was alone with his baby.
"I wanna see the baby !"
Oh, and Emine.
Just great.
The baby stopped crying when their naked head — and despite knowing shit about kids, Jason knew that having their head bare was bad for their health — came in contact with Jason's now bare chest.
Uh. Skin-to-skin.
The baby was still cooing and sniffing soflty, and Jason rocked them gently, trying to be as delicate as possible with a thing so fragile.
Emine peered at the baby, grimacing at them like she could make them laugh.
"It's boring," she declared after a moment, and she went back at her coloring books.
Jason looked down at the baby. They were not boring.
They were…
Perfect.
Jason could see the shape of their nose in the baby's. His cheeks, and the same mole under his right eye, on the baby's face.
The baby was his.
His.
He inhaled sharply, and looked at the infant's eyes.
They cooed. Soflty. Gently.
Oh, so sweetly.
"Hi," breathed Jason, feeling startstruck. "Aren't you so sweet ?"
The baby pinched their eyes and then started wailing again.
"Oh, no, no, no. Sweetie, I'm here. I'm here. Don't cry. Dad's here."
Dad.
Oh, he really shouldn't like this word this much.
It shouldn't hold the weight it did.
Jason rocked his child gently, holding them against their chest.
The panic in his stomach slowly faded, leaving him with only a feeling of calm, of tenderness.
They rocked their child for a moment, trying to calm them down, for a few more moments before Leo barged in.
"Lookin' hot, Superman," he said. "I got the stuff. Let's change it."
Well, that wasn't very appalling.
Jason had never changed an infant before — sure, he'd changed Emine a few times when she was 11 months old, but there was a difference between an-almost-a-year-old and a newborn.
They watched conscientiously as Leo did it, and followed his instructions to pin the diaper. Having no clothes for his baby, Jason wrapped him in the cloths he came in and held him close to their chest, close to his heart.
"You're already a proper dad," snorted Leo. Then, after a silence ; "Are you gonna keep him ?"
Jason looked down at his child.
He was not ready. He'd had this baby dropped on their doorstep less than an hour ago. They had no idea of how to be a dad.
But still — still —, he wanted it. That. Whatever it was, they wanted it.
He wanted this child.
"So, how're you gonna call it, then ?" asked Leo, because he knew, obviously, he knew Jason's answer, before they'd even said it out loud.
Jason looked at his baby, who cooed soflty, and put his head against his dad's heart.
"Piotr."