Hello my lovely Readers! I'm so sorry, I am terrible. I can never finish one project before I start another. This one is, as stated in the summary, based on a Tumblr prompt. There was a whole list of them, but this one just screamed daddy!Grantaire to me. Happy reading!
Grantaire had only been asleep for around an hour when he was awoken by an incessant knocking sound. He groaned and burrowed deeper into the covers. Maybe if he just ignored them for long enough, they would go away. He was just about to doze back off when the baby started crying.
Grantaire groaned again before pulling himself up. He sat on the edge of the bed for a moment, trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes. He stumbled down the hall into the baby's room, cursing whoever the hell was at the door. He walked in and scooped the little girl up out of her cradle. She was crying, little tears falling down her cheeks, waving her little fists around in the air. He rubbed her back and bounced her around the room, all the while humming a lullaby, trying to calm her down. Her cries turned into little sniffles and soon she drifted off to sleep again.
"There, all better aren't we, little one?" Grantaire continued to hum the lullaby as he went to put her back down in her cradle. All of a sudden, the knocking started up again, waking the baby back up. Great. She started to cry again, but calmed right down once Grantaire had her in his arms. The knocking continued on and Grantaire sighed.
"Come on, little one. Let's go see who's at the door." The baby cooed in response and began sucking on her fist. Grantaire walked down the hallway to the front door. Quickly unlocking the bolt, he opened the door.
"What do you want?"
Jehan was starting to worry that something had happened. First, Grantaire hadn't been at a meeting for weeks, and now he wasn't answering his door. This just wasn't like him. Jehan started knocking again, hoping that Grantaire was just sleeping off a hangover or something. He was just about to run and get Bahorel to break the door down when it swung open.
"What do you want?"
"Uh… um… uh…" Jehan stuttered, his brain going completely blank as his eyes landed on the baby nawing on Grantaire's shoulder.
Grantaire sighed at Jehan's shocked expression.
"Yes, I know. Now what do you want? I'd like to go to sleep." Jehan tore his eyes away from the baby and seemed to pull himself together.
"Um… We got worried because you hadn't been to a meeting in a long time. I came by to see if you were okay…" Grantaire sighed, he'd forgotten all about the meetings with his new little distraction around.
"Is there a meeting today?"
"Yeah, right now actually…"
"I'll be over in a little bit. Let me just get this one cleaned up and pack a bag for her."
Grantaire closed the door and a wide smile formed on Jehan's face. He jumped off Grantaire's stoop and started running towards the café. Grantaire had a baby! The Amis were going to freak out when he told them!
Grantaire walked back to the baby's room and grabbed a changing pad.
"Time to clean you up little one." Grantaire said in a sing-song voice. He laid her down on his bed, placed the changing pad underneath her, and went about changing her diaper. This was the one part of parenthood that Grantaire had yet to get used to, and he didn't think he ever would either.
After that was done, he scooped her and went about packing a bag for her. He grabbed some extra clothes, another changing pad, some food, and toys for her to play with. He grabbed a blanket and bundled her up before swinging the bag onto his shoulder and scooping her up again.
"Okay, little one, let's go meet daddy's friends."
He set off towards the Musain, trying to ignore the odd looks her got along the way. He talked to her about the people she would meet once they got to the café, she cooed and babbled in response. When he got to the café, he hesitated for a moment before going in. He knew without a doubt that Jehan had told everyone about her, but he didn't know how they would react. He was soon pulled out of his thoughts by a little hand latching onto his nose and pulling.
"Ow! No, sweetheart, that hurts. Come on, there's no time like the present." He walked through the doors and was immediately flooded with questions.
"You have a baby?"
"Where did it come from?"
"Is it a boy or a girl"
"What's it's name?" All of the chaos became too much for the baby and she started to cry. The questions tapered off after that as Grantaire started to comfort her. The little girl's hands were fisted in Grantaire's shirt as he rubbed her back and shushed her. Soon, she quieted down and peeked out at the Amis.
"Sorry, she just got a little overwhelmed." Joly was the first to speak up.
"What's her name?"
"Amѐlie. I thought it was pretty." The boys were practically bouncing up and down, they were so eager to get their questions answered. They were struggling to remain quiet, though, they didn't want to upset the baby again. Bousett was the next one to blurt out a question.
"Where did she come from?" Grantaire sighed. He didn't like telling this story.
"I found her a few weeks ago." He looked up to gauge everyone's reactions and was surprised to see that everyone looked horrified. He didn't expect that, he expected them to be skeptical.
"I was walking home. I took a short cut down an alleyway and got a little lost. I took a few wrong turns when I heard her crying. I probably spent an hour trying trying to find where the crying was coming from. When I finally found her, she was alone. Wrapped up in rags and left to die in a back alley. I couldn't leave her alone there, so I picked her up and took her home with me. I was going to leave her at a church the next day, but… I don't know. I just couldn't leave her alone like that again. I've kept her ever since."
The boys were all silent. They weren't expecting that. Everyone was standing around awkwardly when Bousett broke the silence.
"Can I hold her?" Grantaire smiled and held Amѐlie out to him. Jehan cuddled her close to his chest and she happily babbled away. Amѐlie reached up and stuck her hand in Bousett's mouth. Bousett laughed before removing her hand.
"Ewww! Amѐlie, no that's icky!" Everyone started laughing and the awkwardness was gone. Soon, for fear of dropping her or getting another hand in his mouth, Bousett passed Amѐlie back to Grantaire.
"She is rather adorable, isn't she?" Enjolras asked as he bent over to tickle and coo at Amѐlie.
"Enjolras, wait –"
"OW!" In all the excitement, Grantaire had forgotten to warn them about Amѐlie's favorite pastime – grabbing people's hair and never letting go.
"I am so sorry, I forgot to warn you about that." Enjolras grimaced as he attempted to pull his hair out of Amѐlie's grip.
"She's much stronger that she looks isn't she?"
"She's not going to let go, just so you know." Enjolras shot a glare around the room as people began to snicker.
"Well, we need to get something done today,"Enjolras grumbled.
In the end, the only solution to the problem was to have Enjolras hold onto Amѐlie until she let go. All of the Amis had to agree that it was rather entertaining to see Enjolras holding onto a babbling baby as he gave one of his speeches. At one point of time, Courfeyrac noticed that Amѐlie had let go of Enjolras' long hair, but Enjolras hadn't put her down. In fact, up until Grantaire and Amѐlie went home, Enjolras held onto Amѐlie.
When Grantaire finally got home, Amѐlie was already asleep. The Amis had worn her out fairly early on. Who knows, she might even sleep through the night tonight. Grantaire smiled as he laid her down in her cradle. He walked back to his room and laid down in bed to, finally, sleep.
Everyone had loved Amѐlie. Today had gone better than he had ever hoped.
For anyone who would like to know, the baby's name is basically Amelia. This is actually from a list of prompts I found on Tumblr, so if you like this one-shot leave a comment and I might make this a series of single-parent AU's.
