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 Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 1:19 am
... It had almost been two weeks now since the disaster Vincent Leschande never wanted to relive again, and never had the days felt longer-- or stranger-- in passing.
As could only be expected of a body that had suffered both severe blood and organ loss in its recent history, he had suffered quite a backlash from dear little Beck's entrance into the world. The worst of it had hit about two days after: so sore and agonized from the ribs down that he could barely breathe without wanting to sob, and the pain had dragged on just as miserably for what seemed like countless days before it finally lessened enough for him to sit up without turning pale and vomiting.
The weakness had lingered for even longer than that-- a rather frustrating endeavor he was still dealing with, actually. In fact, he was still secretly unsure of whether or not his legs would even keep him upright, let alone hold their strength well enough to walk, when the time finally came for his strict bed rest to be through.
To make recovery all the more joyous, business had just been going on as usual in the manor they'd been cursed to loiter in for longer than anyone wanted, with some odd cousin or another causing grief or havoc of just annoyance on a daily basis, be it via sneaking in for 'visits' or cheeky teasing or just curious nosiness. Such a shame that he couldn't throw things at them like he used to.
... But there were some rather significant silver linings to it all; Beck was absolutely thriving in her newfound world of stimulation. Feeding time remained an awkward affair (though Vince had gotten shamefully 'used' to it after so many humiliating repetitions; perhaps there was even some stupid bonding thing in the fail), but she seemed to handle everything with sugary sweet aplomb. Much of her time was spent dozing on one Daddy or another, exploring anything dangled in front of her with those chubby furry fingers, burbling, purring, and making noises of general cuteness. Granted that she did have a few less adorable habits (as any waste-producing animal would), but Sebel had stepped in to help show the clueless parents how to change diapers and even took on quite a few messes himself, doubling as both uncle and nanny whenever he had a spare moment to pick up for parental slack.
Even Auntie had finally come around late one evening and conceded to request holding her which, much to the secret amusement of everyone but the woman, had ended in less than three seconds with a stream of bubbly projectile spit up right down a favorite dress.
... There had been no further attempts at reconciliation since.
But it was the dawn of a (hopefully) peaceful new day as hazy light filtered through the drawn curtains of the guest room, and Vincent was... actually seeming rather shaky and agitated in the sheets, lost to some dream dreadful enough to prickle his twitching tail under the blankets.
Beck, dozing in her little crib by the bedside, was thankfully much more peaceful looking.
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Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 7:59 pm
Alex was just as easy for the kid to sucker, sadly. Beck probably found herself spending more time in the two 'daddies' arms than anywhere else -- and Alex hogged as much of that time as he possibly could without Vincent frowning and being all 'esuz me, that r mein tu' about it.
However, he was able to sleep without going "????!" and having to check on his kid every few minutes (the black splotching and the little blonde mess of hair were undeniably his). Which was the case even that morning, as he was dozing only until his 'manmate' stirred next to him in bed, causing him to open one eye and make a questioning noise.
"Time t'get up?"
Well durr.
There was definitely sun to be had, though he was grateful too that Beck didn't wake up screaming in the night to be fed or whatever other mess there was to be dealt with.
Ah ha ha.
That didn't mean that Alex didn't glance over at the cradle to check on the status of their daughter as well. ********, Alex was not going to get used to the fact that they were going to have a little demon-child under foot for a looong time.
And such an innocent looking one. Where had she inherited that skill from?
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Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 9:05 pm
s**t, s**t, s**t, s**t-- just where the hell was she?! Sure, a part of his brain knew that it was just a dream, but that didn't make the horror and panic any less vivid, only distracted from it when he heard a faint, familiar voice in the dark... But who was it, again? He couldn't quite remember...
Poor Vince woke up with more of a start than he'd been hoping for, jerking so violently, in fact, that he nearly smacked the back of his skull right in Alex's face (thank god he stopped short) and sure as hell got his stomach muscles in a big knot of fail. He felt out of breath, and inexplicably sick and disoriented and weak and puffed and STILL PANICKED OH GOD AND-- ... wait a second. He was still in bed, wasn't he?
"... H-huh?" Thank god his better sense had finally kicked in, though it brought a fleeting headache with it, too, gingerly half-propping himself up with one elbow and scrubbing his (oddly stinging) eyes with his free hand. "Oh... uh... right... r-right... s'probably about that time, isn't it..."
He hated those nightmares. They were downright miserable.
Beck, of course, had dozed peacefully through the whole miniature ordeal-- but the sound of soft parent voices had, sure enough, earned a quiet stir under her baby blanket, streeeeetching those tiny chubby hands above her head and yawning wide like a sleepy baby kitten. Even her tail had reflexively curled up on her tummy-- once it had wormed its way from the blanket corner anyway.
She was such a pleasant and well behaved little baby, really, so far as babies went.
... Too bad the rest of the 'children' in the manor (also known as ALL THE LESCHANDE COUSINS) couldn't be half as decent, and they were already starting up the morning racket somewhere outside as always. No doubt it had something to do with the rush for a good communal breakfast with the family, but that didn't make it any less obnoxious.
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Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 9:23 pm
......
Yep, that would be the man-mate having a miniature spazz-attack over whatever, but Alex didn't comment. Instead he just sat up and mimicked his daughter, streeeeeetching his arms out above his head before rising to go pull the little morning-child up out of bed.
Really, it was like she was purposefully as pleasant as could be towards himself and Vince while warding everybody else away. But it wasn't like this kid had 'target love' already, right?
Nahh.. Beck was too little to have that. But either way, it was time to subject himself to her way of garbling sounds, rubbing her face against the patchy-spots on his chest and shoulders, and oozed hearts at him.
Little velvet-thing.
"Do you want to take a gamble on walking downstairs for breakfast, or will I be bringing it to you again?" he asked, cradling the little patchy-mess of genetic-cubism against his shoulder.
Either way, it was probably going to get to be that time where a certain hungry and fussy baby was going to whine-whimper-coo for food. She was amazingly like clockwork -- again, he was sure it wasn't on purpose, he just couldn't figure out where on earth it was that Beck had gotten it from.
Certainly wasn't him.
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Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 9:58 pm
'Spaz attack' was one way to put it, and TOTAL FRANTIC HORROR was another-- but thankfully the recognition of a certain just-woken baby being there after all (and in one happy burbling piece) managed to sober him out of any last urges to hyperventilate, breathing a hardly-audible sigh of relief and sinking back until his head had flopped right back into the pillow.
All was well. Now, if only his damn stomach would stop feeling like a giant BRUISE, it'd be perfect.
Beck was still scrubbing blearily at her eyes and only half awake when Alex plucked her up, but just that first contact was enough to get her bright-eyed and bushy-tailed almost instantly, rubbing her fuzzy soft cheek up against the provided shoulder pillow and settling right into it just as comfortably as a warm crib.
And yes, for the record, she was oozing hearts the whole time.
As for the questions of their breakfast related fate--
"... I guess I cou--" The poor ginger tabby startled ONCE AGAIN as two particularly rowdy cousins suddenly started up YELLING at eachother down the hall. "... Uh... maybe I should just... keep watch of Beck or something while you get it..." He wasn't opposed to walking or anything, really, but he sure as hell still didn't want to mess with a raucous crowd of braying asses heckling him for his stupid nightgowns and spawn either.
Or Auntie.
He hadn't looked her in the eye since accidently snorting out loud (it was FUNNY OKAY) at the now-infamous 'spit up incident'.
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Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 10:53 pm
As expected, there went the kid using his shoulder like a teddy bear of sandpaper. He really didn't get where the kid had some of these strange 'natural' quirks of hers. But either way, it was soon time for him to peel his comfortable little daughter off of his shoulder to set into Vince's.
Yep.
THERE. HAS A BABY TO COO AND OOZE HEARTS AT YOU. What, Beck wouldn't be picky about which Daddy was holding her! At least as far as Alex was concerned.
"I'll be back, then."
DA DAA DA DAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Off when Poppa-Dad to go and find do the usual routine - grab a tray, stack up some 'basic' looking crap, then RUN THE HELL AWAY while not getting lost in the house. Sometime's Beck's 'uncle' would help.
Maybe he was looking for an excuse to come and see his 'niece' as well. Who knew.
Well, Alex didn't, that was for sure. But like clockwork, 20 minutes later he had RETURNED WITH FOODING.
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Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 11:55 pm
There was actually a slight sniff of distress when Alex pried the tiny child off of him-- but it vanished just as quickly as it had come when she just melted into Vincent's shoulder instead. Velvet would never be a real substitute for scratchy sandpaper, just like scratchy sandpaper would never be a real substitute for velvet, but she was content with both of them equally... and besides, Poppa-Mom had a resource Poppa-Dad lacked!
Yes, that particular resource... which of course Vince knew he'd have to deal with when she gave him the pale bright kitten eyes and started whimpering not two minutes later.
Sigh.
But with the room quiet and no one around to pay witness, he could at least take care of things without any witnesses-- and by the time Alex had made his triumphant return with foodstuffs for the grownups, she was half-dozing again on his chest with a full belly and a gurgly purr in her throat.
As for breakfast, Sebel (who was thankfully present in the mass of obnoxious young men and ladies downstairs) was more than happy to assist with throwing things together for his brother-in-law and making sure no one would ruin a clean get away. He'd almost followed after the guy too, just to check up on things, but... alas, no, Auntie had saw him trying to sneak off and given him a sharp call right back to her side, softly snapping that he "wasn't excused from the table yet." Poor guy.
BUT ANYWAY...
"... Hey." Naturally it was the duty of a 'manmate' to greet his counterpart upon returning; he'd even managed to sit up (... somewhat) with a couple of pillows shoved behind his back and a lulling Beck still curled up against him. "Did you get much grief down there, man?..."
As if grief wasn't just a given in the stupid household. He was still chomping at the bit to get out there as soon as he was able.
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Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 10:49 am
Hey, whatever needed to happen, happened -- frankly, it would get those THINGS off of Vince sooner to do it. Or at least Alex hypothesized it to be such a case. He didn't really know about these sorts of things.
However, since it seemed the kid was happily dozing off again with her full little belly, Alex took that as a sign that feeding the Poppa-mom was now OK.
"Nah. I think Sebel got more grief than I did... I mostly just got curious stares." Then again, when the roots of his hair were slowly turning a color that wasn't black there was strangeness to be had. Then again, it was painfully obvious from said roots where lil' Beck's hair had come from.
Either way, Alex rested the tray on the bedside table closer to Vince (as there was a kid in his lap, so that location wasn't a possibility) and snatched a piece of toast off of it for himself.
Om nom nom nom.
Though after that, he also picked up the sleepy little patchy-baby from Vincent's body to cradle her back against his shoulder. There, poppa-mom now had arms to eat his breakfast with.
"We really need to get out of here soon."
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Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 1:06 pm
... Well Vince could only hope it would get those damn things off of him faster-- and maybe make his damn hips revert back to normal too! It was quite a shame that the opposite was actually true, though, and that said hips would probably always look a little girlier thereafter. Had he known those facts, it would've no doubt been a crushing blow... but he didn't (for now) and would thus just go on clinging to those lofty false hopes.
For now, though, he would've just been happy to get the hell out of t-- ... uh, yeah, what Alex had just said.
"You're telling me," he muttered blandly, finally free to push himself into a full upright position-- which was attainable now, thank god-- since the kid had been (gently) yanked off of him. It wasn't exactly comfortable yet, but he was just thankful for any improvements at all, and barely even grimaced at it. "I'm so damn sick of this stupid house..." And the stupid people in it, too.
On the bright side, though, at least the breakfast food was decent. Scrambled eggs, hash browns, toast and bacon-- mm! Or close enough to it, anyway. He wasn't picky.
(Beck, all the while, had her cheek shoved right back up against Alex's shoulder and was OUT in a purring ball of snooziness).
"... So..." But now it was time to pause from the nomming to frown a little. "Y'think maybe we can leave today?..."
OH PLEASE SAY YES, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.
The poor tabby was getting desperate.
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Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 1:33 pm
Ah ha ha. HIS POOR MANMATE, SO VICTIMIZED AND BEDRIDDEN. But then again, he was trying to recover from the giant BRUISE that was the waist-down. Lucky kid.
And he meant that in the most sarcastic way ever.
"Well, if you're up and able to walk then yes." Alex replied, balancing Beck with one arm and grabbing another piece of toast (and some bacon) with his free hand to continue his own 'breakfast having'. Nom nom nom nom.
Nngh... cute kid on his shoulder. Siiiigh. Really, this girl was going to grow up with dad wrapped around her little finger. WHEN DID HE BECOME SUCH A SUCKER?
"If you can walk that far, then I'll make a point of packing things up."
However...
"But only after we've eaten and I settle our 'debts' with your aunt." Since he'd only paid for the ruined room they were in previously that had been BIRTHED ALL OVER... and other thinged-all-over. He was severely hoping that there wasn't a uterus in a jar somewhere.
....
...
Ew.
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Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 7:42 pm
Oh, Beck would probably grow up with both dads wrapped around her fingers, really, because even Vince was guilty of being pretty damn attached to her already. Who could blame him, though? For all the grief she'd put him through, and all the sickeningly overwhelming cute that oozed out of her, it was pretty much impossible to resist her.
His stomach was being relatively compliant with meals anymore, which was definitely a good thing, and he took full advantage of it to down two pieces of toast and a couple strips of bacon, even tenacious enough to consider a few good mouthfuls of egg...
Until Alex made that last comment and earned a very distinct lurch from his guts, frowning and very nearly dropping his fork.
"... I-I can walk just fine," he mumbled, oddly quiet all of a sudden. Maybe he was just trying to shrug off the horrible flashbacks of that bloody mattress and the misery that came with it, but... he'd never admit that it still freaked him out like nobody's business.
(He'd just look a lot paler and queasier for it.)
"At least... I think..."
Not that he'd actually been up and making the attempt much yet with the ordered bedrest-- but surely, he was capable of it perfectly well! If anything, he should've been more mobile than before, now that the extra WEIGHT on his stomach wasn't there anymore; in fact, it was being cradled on someone else's shoulder (napping as it were) and his own gut was... okay, it wasn't exactly back to normal, but it was still LIGHTER!
(... Though god help him, if he ever saw that uterus in a jar thing, he'd probably faint dead on the spot.)
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Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 8:01 pm
"Well, if you need to borrow an elbow, that will also be available." Alex offered, sighing and looking down at the sleepy child at his shoulder.
...... Really, he couldn't believe that the belly was more than a tumor now. Which was a mean way to put it (kind of, he could think of worse), but really... even after a couple of weeks it was strange to think that the kid was more than just a... little round-house kicker on Vincent's insides.
Alas, too cute.
"Either way, we'll manage to leave today."
EVEN IF HE HAD TO CARRY EVERYTHING BUT THE BABY. Because he really didn't want to be spending too much time there, sigh. SIIIGHHH. They'd hopefully move their butts out soon enough.
Which was the plan thus far, between balancing a kid and breakfast.
Beckfast. Ha ha. Pun.
Not one related to anything, but yes. "It may be as soon as early afternoon before we leave, however."
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Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 9:37 pm
... Well hey, try being the one who'd carried said 'tumor' in their belly for a good seven months and suddenly not have it there anymore! Vince had got so damn accustomed to the daily grief, backaches and organ punching that suddenly not experiencing it any more felt downright strange, almost... wrong, in a kind of 'something is outside the norm' way.
Not that he wanted to repeat the whole mess again or anything. It was just kind of hard to explain the right way.
"Good t'hear..." Well, even if he did wind up sucking and failing at walking (which he was deadset AGAINST if he could help it), they'd manage to get out of there somehow anyway. "I'm about ready to wring someone's neck if I stay here much longer..."
Which probably would've been the next obnoxious cousin who made the mistake of popping their head in the door, as it were. He wasn't picky on his victims (as if he could reach them).
With as much breakfast packed away as his still-faintly-queasy stomach could handle, though, and the kiddo asleep, it was time to shove off his covers and actually test his legs out on their own, huh. No better moment to do it than now, right? Right!
"..............."
... Fjalkf;djasjkg;aga h-he really shouldn't have been so guilty of hesitating like that.
It just felt like it had been such a LONG time since he did it. God, how pathetic was he?
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Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 10:51 pm
Not that Vincent would actually be able to REACH a strangling-victim without the assistance of an elbow on Alex's part.. and currently one elbow was facilitating the nomming of food while the other was holding up the kid. Yep.... he just had to pack in the last of his own breakfast before 'poppa-mom' attempted to get up.
Which was an easy enough task, rendering Alex 'freed' up in time to be there to offer Vincent an arm when it came time to OMGATTEMPTATTEMPT to walk. Hey, if Beck was awake, maybe she'd cheer for other!Daddy too! Or coo purr look adorable and make GRABBY HANDS for him.
That might have been counter-productive, now that he thought about it.
But either way.
..... "You tend to forget how after bedrest for a week." he said, as though the hesitation wasn't a problem at all or worrisome to be suffering -- did he know from experience?
(Well his author certainly did).
"So you may need a hand."
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Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 11:39 pm
Vince actually had paused for a second at the mention of 'forgetting' that seemed so eerily firsthand-- and had to wonder: did Alex know from experience somehow? It was brain breaking enough to imagine him in a weak enough state for it, but he couldn't even fathom anyone capable of making him like that! He was practically friggin' invincible, right?...
Right?...
"I guess that's true..." But alas, it was time for the little ginger tabby to choke down any hesitation, suck it up, and STAND, DAMMIT, because he was PERFECTLY CAPABLE A-- O SHI NOT SO CAPABLE WEAK KNEES WEAK KNEES!!--
Humiliating and pathetic though it was, he did wind up having to latch onto that arm in the end when (rather unsurprisingly) his knees gave out underneath him just a split second after he got to his feet, only staying upright with the support and STILL looking a bit like a wobbly colt.
The little jolt had actually stirred Beck too, who blinked her little pale eyes, rolled her head on Alex's shoulder, and made a rather... confused, inquisitive sound, not quite understanding what she'd woken up to, but happy to investigate it as best any infant could.
"S-See, I can do it just fine!..." Do what-- stand there in a teetering mess of FAIL?
But hey, at least he hadn't completely collapsed, right? It was a (sortofliteral) step in the right direction! Just because his whole abdomen was still a giant bruise didn't mean anything!
(... Maybe he just needed a little more leg stretching or something and it'd be fixed.)
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