strangetrip | [OTA] such a nice way to start people

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[OTA] such a nice way to start people

The past few days had been at least a year's worth of emotions and exhaustion, and Vex... and Vex didn't even know how to finish that thought. What she did know was the suite was starting to feel way too small and constricting, and if she didn't get out of their rooms for a little while, she was going to go batty.

She'd finished feeding Elaina and changed her diaper – thank Pelor they no longer looked like something a black pudding left behind – and by the time the baby was dressed in the light layers all the books insisted were the only way to go, she was sound asleep again. And even more miraculously, the rain that had been falling all day decided to take a break. Vex grabbed one of the ever-present towels she was using as a baby blanket and draped it over Elaina where she slept tucked against Vex's chest. If she needed anything that wasn't already in her bag, she could always call Percy or Vax over the earrings to bring it.

Vex took a deep breath of rain-fresh air when she stepped out of the suite, and then paused, waiting and hoping she hadn't disturbed the baby's sleep. Elaina nestled closer, but didn't seem to wake, and Vex started a slow stroll, falling into an almost instinctive movement that lightly rocked the sleeping baby. She tipped her head up toward the sky, smiling at the sun peeking out from behind grey clouds. It felt so good just to be out and moving around, but it wasn't long before her attention turned once again to the bundle she carried and how her heart filled with warmth and love.

Who cared if there were dark circles under her eyes? If there was still a carefulness to how she walked that hinted at some hidden discomfort? There was an easy smile in the curve of her mouth that didn't fade, but got brighter and wider whenever she got to introduce someone to the youngest de Rolo.

Eventually she headed to the cafe. Maybe she could find out what those bug-things were the chef was cooking today.

[ooc: Meet Vex and baby Elaina either walking outside or in the cafe.]

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Snow had been worried from the moment Vex first told her she was pregnant. And she could be so skittish around people at the best of times. So it hadn't been much of a surprise when Snow hadn't come to visit since Elaina was born. Vex wasn't hurt by it, but she did hope Snow could warm to Elaina in time. It was hard enough when the different parts of the family avoiding each other were adults who could choose for themselves and be on their own. But Elaina was unlikely to be far from Vex – or Percy or Vax or the others, but mostly Vex while she was still feeding so often – for months, at least.

Vex smiled at Snow as she crossed the cafe, "Hello, Snow darling," once she was near.

"H'lo," Snow said, so quiet it almost wasn't there at all. Her eyes remained focused on the tiny bundle of a person. She chewed her lip and made herself ask, "How are you?" clearly.

"I'm fine. Really. And I'm still me." With the way Snow couldn't take her eyes from Elaina – and okay, Vex and Percy and Vax had a hard time doing that too, but it read differently from them – Vex thought that was maybe part of the problem for Snow. Wondering how the baby would change her, and their friendship. And it would change things, of course it would, but Vex was still Vex.

"I'd been in our rooms too long, decided it was time to get out for awhile. And thankfully, the rain has stopped for now. If you'd like, you could grab a couple of beers for you and Trinket," no alcohol for Vex yet, unfortunately, according to the books they were all relying on for advice, "and we could go for a walk? Enjoy the sunshine?"

"Don't gotta drink," Snow mumbled. She had recognized of course that Vex had been and was abstaining, and having a drink without her felt... rude. Still it wasn't a refusal of the entire proposal. "But... okay."

"Only if you want one, of course. But Trink will happily drink with you." Or any of his friends, and he still missed his other drinking buddy, Kash, but Vex wasn't going to bring him up now.

"But he'll be glad to see you whether there's beer or not. So. Up to you."

"No beer," she said, more clear and certain now.

Snow wouldn't lie, part of her kind of wanted a drink right now, but it wasn't right. So she wouldn't. It was as simple as that.

"All right." If Snow was sure, she was sure, and Vex wasn't going to push. Pushing worked about as well on Snow as it did on Vex, although in very different ways. That was one of the reasons Vex liked her so much.

She nodded and stepped aside for Snow to join her, but didn't say or do anything else until they were outside. Even then she glanced up at the sky to judge how likely it was to start raining again soon, as her hand came up to make sure Elaina's hat – how was it so tiny and so cute, in the inn's signature pink? – hadn't slipped.

Snow fell in step with Vex, her eyes down on the ground mostly but unable to resist sneaking glimpses at the baby. Had her brother been that tiny? He must have been, once. But she couldn't remember.

In fact, she realized, that she could barely remember his face. How much of him had there been in the deer boy? When she tried to think of the child, all she could see was Roland. And that was more distressing than she knew what to do with.

At first, Snow's flickering glances at Elaina didn't go unnoticed, only unacknowledged. But when Snow's discomfort seemed to grow, it was time to do something.

"You're sleeping now, Treasure," she began, her voice pitched slightly higher than usual and almost rhythmic, "and I know everyone and everything is so very very new. But today you get to meet Snow. She is wonderful, and one of Trinket's favorite people, after you and me. And Trinket is the very best judge of character."

"I ain't," Snow couldn't help mumbling at the idea that she was anything remotely like wonderful. But it got her head up. "What's her name?"

Vex was sure she had a much healthier and more accurate opinion of Snow than Snow did herself. But she wouldn't argue the point and make the dear girl feel more awkward and embarrassed.

"Where are my manners?" she wondered, a twinkle to her eyes for the show. She turned slightly, and pulled the blanket down to give Snow a better view of the baby. "Snow, darling, let me introduce Elaina de Rolo. Percy picked out the name. Well, we agreed on it together, but it was his idea. To name her after our mother." The first Elaina was always our mother according to Vex and Vax. Just as it was always our birthday. Their father, on the other hand, which they'd be just as happy to denounce, might sometimes be referred to with a singular pronoun, if the other twin wasn't a part of the conversation.

Snow's lower lip disappeared into her mouth so she could worry it with her teeth, but finally she lifted a hand in an awkward little finger-wave and whispered. "Hi, Elaina."

She could not remember her own name. Snow had a vague idea that she'd been named for her mother--Sarah, of course, since you couldn't name a girl for a gun in polite society--but she couldn't imagine actually being named for someone dear to her or the person naming her. Sarah, should that have been the case, had meant nothing to her father in any way, and Snow White had been to wound her.

Vex lifted Elaina's tiny fist with one finger and moved it a gentle up and down, 'waving' back at Snow.

"When they're this little, babies don't do much except sleep, eat, and shit," she explained. "And keep their mamas and papas from sleeping. More like kittens than foals. But give her a few weeks or months, and everything changes."

More like a kitten than a foal, an image that made perfect sense to her. Snow had seen a number of newborn kittens and had helped birth horses before--which might make someone wonder how a human baby could possibly be so distressing--and could immediately connect this tiny girl to the blind little things nosing for their mother's milk. A few weeks, though, transformed them radically into still very young and inexperienced but curious and active little cats. Snow nodded her understanding.

The little 'wave' though almost made her smile. Almost.

More experience with baby animals than baby people was something Vex shared with Snow, and the comparison, kittens and foals, was one she'd made for herself. So she'd hoped it would make more sense to Snow as well.

"Unlike a newborn kitten, she can and does open her eyes – they are so so blue right now – but she can't see very far or well." Vex had read that in some of the books on babies, but she'd seen it for herself, the way Elaina's eyes seemed drawn to her face as they nursed, or to other's when they held her or leaned in close.

Snow found herself stepping closer, looking down at the baby's tiny face, wondering at the eyes that were closed right now. "Are they not gonna stay blue?"

"They might. Percy has blue eyes." And his hair had been dark, before the Briarwoods and the trauma that had turned it white. So it was too soon yet to know whether she'd take more after Vex or Percy. "But it's too soon to tell. Another way babies are like kittens. Although I think it will take more than a few weeks for them to change."

"Oh." It hadn't really crossed Snow's mind before now how much a baby human was like a baby cat. "I never..."

She chewed her lip. "I never got a good look at my brother until he was big enough to walk."

"Your Auntie Velora was older than that, when Uncle Vax and I met her." The higher pitch and almost singsong rhythm were for the baby who was just starting to shift and bunch in Vex's arms maybe about to awake.

"Most of what I know about babies, I've read in books. But, I raised Trinket from a cub, and I didn't know even that much about bears. Or have nearly as much help. We'll figure it out, won't we, treasure?"

Snow couldn't remember the last time she found something as engrossing as the play of teeny tiny muscles in that teeny tiny body. She tipped her head to one side, considering perhaps for the first time that this was how everyone started. This small, this helpless. Even people she hated. Even people she feared. The idea was too big to come out properly. "She's so little."

"I know. It's hard to believe someone could be so little." Awe and trepidation robbed Vex's voice of power. That she could be responsible for this tiny, fragile person.

When the baby continued to bunch and move, Vex turned her, tucking Elaina into the crook of her arm. "Are you going to wake up? Hmm? Let Snow see you?"

Snow's eyes went wide with more than a little alarm, but for the moment at least she stayed right where she was. She wanted to see those blue eyes, even if she didn't know why that was a thing she'd want. Blue eyes had been the bane of her childhood. But right now, she didn't think about that.

For all that her attention seemed to be entirely on Elaina – to be fair, much of it was – Vex was keeping a watch on Snow as well. She'd been wary at best ever since Vex told her about the pregnancy, and the broken wildness seemed just on the brink of breaking through and sending Snow fleeing. Which wasn't the point. Vex wanted Snow and Elaina to get accustomed to each other. So Vex continued to act much as she would with a feral animal. Slow, careful changes, not too focused attention, giving Snow a chance to adjust and her curiosity to keep her interested.

With the baby settled comfortably in one arm, Vex brushed a teeny tiny hand with one finger, and smiled when baby fingers opened wide then wrapped around hers.

Her hand was so tiny that Snow's breath caught in her throat. She felt something welling up inside her, but not knowing what it was she ducked her head awkwardly and took a step back.

Feeling too much and not knowing what to do with it all was something Vex was getting to know very well the past few days. So she recognized it in Snow now. She didn't call attention to it, though. If it had been her, someone mentioning it would only have made things worse.

"The books say it's a reflex, the way she grabs on like that. Something about baby monkeys not falling out of trees. But it makes me melt a little every single time."

[OTA] such a nice way to start people

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