[ OPEN ] Se sapessero tutto su di te

[ombranera]

WHO: Zevran, Luciano, and YOU
WHAT: Catch all for the month
WHEN: June/Justinian
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Prose or Brackets are fine, roll with what you like most. If you want a specific prompt hit me up on plurk @ here!

[ After the Baptism (Early Justinian) ]

Early in the evening, after some small ceremony in Skyhold's chapel, Zevran can be found surrounded by his Kestrels, sitting quietly in a corner of The Herald's rest as they played music and sang a great many traditional Antivan pieces. There is food and wine and dancing and Zevran partakes only a little. While he may look tired and a little overwhelmed, the night is a joyous one all the same. In his arms, on his lap, or sitting on the table with Zevran's steadying hand upon his back is a small elven child. All wide blue eyes and blonde curls, tanned skin that is marred only by the smudge of ashes in a circle on his forehead as is custom, dressed in a simple cotton shift Luciano Arainai claps and squeals in turn, gnawing on whatever is within reach or patting down Zevran's shirt with sticky hands. He is a child, they are sticky, it is a known fact. To the end of the night exhaustion catches hold for both, leaving the infant cranky and Zevran struggling to soothe him long enough to slip away to their rooms.


[ Garden ]

Afternoons find Zevran lounging in the garden- fresh air is both good for him and supposedly healthy for children- as long as he is able to keep Lucci from shoving things into his mouth that are not meant to be eaten. Which is everything. Which means it is less lounging and more tugging upon a leash and harness he has rigged to let his child roam but not too far- only a few feet from where he is sprawled and sketching upon a blanket. Most of his attention is actually on his son but it does the boy well to assume he has leave to explore. At least until he crawls back to demand food or attention or- whatever it is infants want. Zevran is still learning to interpret his various burbles and shrieks.


[ Courtyard ]

Zevran is, for the moment, trapped under the dead weight of his son- the slightest shifting earns a familiar screwing up of Lucci's face that has him resigned to simply leaning back against the tree where he'd stopped walking to shift his grip earlier and wait out the nap. He dare not doze himself- too tense against the open area, how vulnerable they are, how exposed. Tensing too much causes the same small sounds of upset and thus he is forced to sit, mind that he does not lock up, and wait for Lucci to fall deep enough asleep that he might carry him back to their room or rouse himself enough to make the trip worthwhile.


[ Hot Springs ]

"Your voice does carry, you know." Idle and conversational, Zevran has found a shallower edge of the hot springs when he'd truly rather a deep soak- but elven infants do not swim well and as such he must sit over here. With a shrieking, splashing child rigged safely in some manner of wicker basket he'd lowered into the water to keep Lucci from falling over backward and drowning. And to keep these little floating toys (maker only knows who gave them to him, he cannot recall) from floating away. "Yes, yes, splashing the water is marvelous fun- please hold still."

Not that Lucci is one to listen, wriggling under Zevran's hands as he tries to clean...something...sticky from his son's hair. "What is this, honey? How did you get honey in your hair? When were you near honey?"


[ Training Grounds ]

There are rare days when Lucci is not quite so prone to shrieking and crawling, not quite so intent on escape and Zevran can wrap him in a sling of sorts, tucked up against his chest, and actually train his Kestrels. It is an adjustment, every so often he must away to change the child's soiled underclothes or to feed him and the extra weight is odd and leaves him sore at the end of a few hours- but with one hand on Lucci's back to support him, the other gesturing as he speaks in rapid fire Antivan, directing his Kestrels through their maneuvers.

Comments

[the_effect_she_has]

"Huh, sounds like you need a bigger space for him to be able to play around in." Her lips curved up at the corners. "My father used to put us in the yard, and tie a long ribbon around a tree, so we could explore but not wander too far from home."

[ombranera]

"When the Guild House is finished in the Valley he will have as much space as his little heart desires." Only a month or so more, depending upon how quickly the Kestrels and their builders have been working. "Mmm...now there's a thought. He does love to crawl about."

[the_effect_she_has]

"I've seen them building -- and you're right, he will." She looked at the small sleeping form, her voice still quiet. "If he's crawling already, he'll be ready to try walking soon."

[ombranera]

"Oh he has attempted to stand more than once. He has not quite yet managed it but, in time." And then climbing. And then opening things- he is...going to go grey at this rate, his lovely hair leeched of it's color.

At least it won't be easy to see.

[the_effect_she_has]

Oh wow - all right. "Do your cupboards have locks on them? My father used to lock all of our cupboards so we couldn't get into the valuable things."

[ombranera]

"No, most of what i have is in chests with lids too heavy for him to lift- but I will have Alejo whip up a set of locks for those in the Guild house." There is much there Lucci does not need to get into.

[the_effect_she_has]

"That would be the smartest plan." She stated simply, before looking at the baby once more.

Her expression softened, "It changes you, becoming a parent. My father always said 'Really makes you think - who do I trust, who do I want my baby around, who do I see in her future'?"

She shifted, slightly, "... Thank you. For allowing me to be part of his life. Even in a small way. It means a lot to me."

[ombranera]

"Not me." Comes out before he can think- but it's true enough. He was not meant for infants, for children. And yet he must raise Lucci all the same. "If I could find someone better suited to mind him, that I would trust with him? That is where he would go. But I spent weeks sitting and considering...and everyone I know, everyone I would trust? Is either with the Inquisition or Dead."

Such was the lift of an Assassin.

[the_effect_she_has]

She looks at him then, and then she sighs, "Zevran, you're one of the most clever people I know, but sometimes, you're kind of an idiot. Don't you know you've been something like a parental figure since you've gotten here? To Beleth, to Merrick, to so many others. Just look at your Kestrels. I know you've been like a older brother to me."

One eyebrow arched, "You're going to be a great father, and there's no one better suited. I can tell by the way he's sacked out on you."

[ombranera]

"..." Katniss is met with puzzled, narrowed eyes. Paternal? "I am minding Merrick so he does not completely lose control of himself and get a great many people killed, Beleth needed the instruction because as she was she, too, was going to get herself and other people killed in the process. The Kestrels needed a master and I have, in my own way, become that without...everything that makes a Crow Master unpleasant." For his own sake of mind.

It is less about sentiment and more about pragmatism. "He's tired from screaming. Earlier, so much screaming. I do not know why."

[the_effect_she_has]

"...Zevran. That's what fathers do." Sentiment or not - fathers protected their children from being idiots and getting other people killed. Most of the time though, there was sentiment.

She looked down at Luciano, her eyebrows narrowing, "Is he teething?"

[ombranera]

His mind was too busy skittering away from the idea. Lucci was enough of a handfull. Considering the others as such? He would go mad. "Yes, he is teething, no, they were not bothering him at the time. He was not hungry, he did not need to be changed- I think he simply felt like yelling."

[the_effect_she_has]

One corner of her mouth quirked up, but she cleared her throat, "Sometimes we all just want to hear our own voices. Sing our own songs. Even if it's just yelling."

[ombranera]

"Perhaps he could learn to do so quietly." He will never recover his hearing should Lucci screech like this until he learns words.

[the_effect_she_has]

"Have you tried singing to him? It might distract him from yelling - so he has to listen instead of make his own noise." She hooked her fingers into the pockets of her jacket. "If nothing else, he might learn words faster."

A pause, then a keen look. "Just how many lessons do I have to give him before you let me hold him?"

[ombranera]

"One does not barter for the right to hold an infant." Zevran rolled his eyes, carefully shifting against the tree to find somewhere more comfortable against the tree. Luccio shifts against Zevran's chest, huffs out a little burble of sound- and stills. "We will have to see how he takes to you when he is awake."

[the_effect_she_has]

"Oh, well. I suppose I shall have to work on bribery." She looks at him, before she shakes her head, "Would you at least like me to get you a chair? That doesn't look at all comfortable."

[ombranera]

"I don't know if you've noticed- but I am too afraid of waking him to move." Even breathing too deeply seemed a risk- which is no great trouble for an assassin.

[the_effect_she_has]

"He looks like he's conked out - you could probably even put him down on a blanket and he'd keep sleeping." She commented wryly, "Beyond that -- what happens when you fall down? You can't keep that up forever."

[ombranera]

"I thought that earlier and he made it quite clear he was displeased." Still. Tentatively, he tugged Lucci from his shoulder enough to slip down and sit at the base of the tree- and there was no fussing.

"...In my pack, on top? There is a blanket." Perhaps they might manage this after all.

[the_effect_she_has]

She slipped over to the pack, and took out the blanket of the bag. Holding it out, she looked at the ground. "Do you want me to put it down there?"

[ombranera]

"Yes, that would be best. There is shade with the tree and this is as good a place as any. He's fallen asleep under the bed before." Zevran had no room to judge.

[the_effect_she_has]

"Well, I fall asleep in trees ... " She put down the blanket, making sure to fold up one end for Lucci's head, so he could rest comfortably. "He's big, for nine months."

[ombranera]

"You are not an infant." Not a chubby, sleepy infant- Zevran shifted Lucci with great care from his torso to the blanket, tucking one side around him and keeping one hand on him as he settled. It was strange to see him splayed out so peacefully when he knew the screaming fits that could be had. "Is he? I would not know."

[the_effect_she_has]

"True. I'm a Katniss." Her lips twisted faintly at the corners, before she takes a seat off the blanket, making sure the sun doesn't hit the baby's face.

"Hmmm. Prim was a tiny thing, when she was nine months. Father says I was the same way."