The screaming child in the other room woke Rebecca first, she groaned unhappily as she crawled out of bed to tend to the toddler. It was only four-twenty-two in the morning and little Lyric needed something.
Shaun and Desmond were too busy snoring away in their comfy nest of blankets and pillows to tend to their child. Rebecca had gotten over the shock easily of Desmond's ability to bear children, passing it off as something funky that Abstergo had put in his food, something that had to do with Baby; or maybe being exposed to the Apple...well, as his ancestors.
She picked up the crying child and snuggled her, still in thought. Ezio had slept with Leonardo, but would never let the man cum inside him. Altair was too-prideful a man to let himself be topped - by Malik, even. Rebecca sighed and looked at Lyric.
"Wassa matter, baby girl?" She asked tiredly, rubbing her small back gently.
"Momma," she whimpered, "want Momma." Rebecca nodded and walked over to the boys' room and knocked. An exasperated groan could be heard and Shaun came to the door.
"Rebecca, it's four-thirty in the sodding morning," he took a breath to insult her, but then saw Lyric reaching for him, "thanks, mate." He took the toddler with a soft coo and an appreciative, but dismissive look to Becks.
He closed the door behind him and moved over to Desmond, letting the one year-old jump onto him. Desmond gave her a smile and kissed her cheek.
"Why are you up so early?"
"Alty," she said, snuggling into his arms and reaching around like she typically did to play with the short hair at the back of Desmond's neck. "Mad."
"Alty?" Shaun asked quietly, sitting beside the two people he loved the most. "Lyric, dear, do you mean Altair?"
"Alty," she said succinctly, burying her face into Desmond's shoulder. The ex-bartender looked at him, fear written along his features.
"Try to get some sleep, okay?" Desmond murmured soothingly. He stroked her black hair away gently, comforting her until she fell asleep peacefully in his arms.
"She saw Altair?" Shaun hissed quietly, "Altair Ibn La-fucking-Ahad has been in the same room as my little nit?"
"Maybe she was just dreaming," Desmond supplied quickly, "she's seen you draw him and we talk an awful lot about him."
"Des," he sighed, "what if it's because you suffered from the Bleeding Effect when you were pregnant?"
A sigh and then silence befell the couple.
"Look, Des," he started, "we'll give this another week and if she sees him again, then we'll start tests or something."
The assassin only pressed a gentle kiss to Lyric's sleeping head and let himself snuggle into Shaun. The redhead smiled lightly, kissing Desmond's scarred lips, letting his arms wrap around him gently.
"I love you, Shaun."
"I love you too, you Wanker."
Shaun chuckled as Desmond punched his shoulder.
The blaring beeps of Shaun's alarmclock easily woke him, but his little family continued to snore blissfully. He gave a sigh and shook Desmond lightly, extracting Lyric from his arms as he did so. The small girl whimpered in protest, grabbing at the soft material of Shaun's nightshirt.
"Des, get up," he ordered, pulling the sheets off of the tanned man. Said man gave his own irritable groan of protest at the chill of the air. "Get up, you tit!"
"Not in front of her, Shaun," Desmond warned through the pillow, slowly dragging himself up. He got to his feet and shuffled into the kitchen, an awake-Shaun and dozing Lyric in tow. He set out Shaun's tea, began brewing coffee and took his griping child from the historian.
"Might wanna change her soon, love."
Desmond ignored him with a question to Lyric, "what do you wanna eat?"
"Ceewios," she replied, hands going to play with his hair, "cheewios." she reiterated.
"Sounds good," Desmond sat her down in her high chair, reaching into the yellow box to grab a handful of Sawdust Cheerios to dump it out on her tray. Sawdust Cheerios were the dull, dusty ones without any form of sweetener. Desmond had learned once she switched to solid foods that she preferred to have something bland and tasteless. She ate these Cheerios without milk and would only take sips of soy milk when she was thirsty.
The switch of milk was odd as well, Desmond produced it on his own miraculously. She went from man-milk to soy milk due to either the taste or the richness in whole milk. Lyric's picky little tongue would have nothing but organics and plain foods. She hated sweets, a trait he decided she picked up from Shaun, his own sweet tooth had become notorious.
"Thanks for setting out the tea, mate."
"Sure thing," Desmond replied, begining to mix his instant breakfast.
When Lyric was born, he didn't have the time to sit down and make himself to eat because it'd be cold or soggy after he'd taken care of her own needs. Lucy began to notice his dramatic decrease in weight(mostly the baby fat falling off easily) and suggested he atleast substituted the meals with the drink. She went out and bought the three classic flavors: chocolate, vanilla and strawberry and he took to the little powdery packets easily.
Shaun sat down at the table near the black-haired little girl and commented on her arrangement of Cheerios, noting that it looked like Big Ben. This initiated a long lesson about the facts of Great Britain and it's glorious history.
"Don't forget the messed up teeth, Shaun."
"Excuse me?"
"Bad teef!" Lyric agreed, throwing a Cheerio at Desmond. Shaun scowled at his boyfriend unhappily.
"Don't teach her that, you idiot!" He reprimanded, "the only Brit I've seen with bad teeth is my sister, Eliza! That stupid nit wouldn't know a toothbrush from a bowlingpin!"
Desmond laughed at that, finishing the process of stirring his chocolate start of the day to start drinking it down. Rebecca and Lucy were the next two to join breakfast, making poptarts and a bowl of cereal. Lucy made sure to take a banana as well to show some healthy-food-choice to Lyric.
"So, she was screaming at four in the morning," Lucy sighed pointedly, "how did you guys sleep through it?"
"It comes with the parenting thing," Desmond explained, "we're so used to it, we know what her cries mean and she usually doesn't cry at night, so we've been sleeping pretty deeply."
"Those first months were God awful," Shaun groaned, "cholic and she was just a pain in the arse."
The four adults reminisqued about those five miserable months of screaming, crying, massive shitting, constant bottles, constant outfit changes. Desmond was the first to think about the fun times they had either way, when she would stop crying to snuggle into him or when he would do some face or dance to get her to laugh instead of scream.
"Well," Desmond broke the silence, "she's a good girl, now."
"My little nits an angel," Shaun said affectionately, lifting her up when she finished eating. "And she'd better behave when Momma's in the Animus."
The Americans surrounding the table began to shuffle into the workroom.
"Be good for Daddy," Desmond said, kissing her cheek gently, "Mommy loves you."
"Love," she replied like usual, smiling as she played with the prickly hair on the back of Shaun's head. Shaun leaned to kiss Desmond before the man went to the animus.
"See you when you're out, love."
Desmond entered the Animus.