Title: Dad Talk

Author: AristideCauquemaire

Rating: M for language.

Warnings: Sweet enough to give you caries.

This is a staggeringly short, syrupy sweet spin-off-one-shot-thing of 'A Helping Handshake' (which I would suggest you should read before this, and which MattyMasquerade and promisemeourshipwontsink have put on their favourites list, and the last chapter of which several people have kindly reviewed, thank you for that, guys!). I have no idea why I wrote it, or why the hell I love it to bits like I do. Normally I am always displeased with my own writing. Hell, normally everything I write has fifteen pages before I even have the slightest inkling where I'm going with it. I blame the hormones and springtime.

Full of quasi-motherly pride, I showed it to my beta Nia, saying that this was a wee special thing just for the two of us. She said I should post it online. So we compromised, and here I am, posting it online.

Plotwise, we are in the year 2006, a few weeks after the "cold and rainy August day, sixteen years ago" mentioned in Draco's flashback in 'A Helping Handshake', chapter 5. Astoria has just caught Draco sneaking home in the middle of the night and put his teensy son into his arms for the very first time...

Dad Talk

/

There he stood, heart in his mouth, barely daring to breathe.

Astoria's footsteps up the stairs were vanishing quickly. She was already out of earshot.

It occurred to him just then that Malfoy Manor was way too big. First responders, when called to, say, a baby-related emergency, would take forever just to cross the kitchen. Astoria wouldn't even hear him upstairs if he, say, screamed for help. True, there was always Milly, but did house-elves have any idea about caring for human babies anyway?

Don't panic now. He swallowed. One Mississippi, two Mississippi...

Draco looked down into his son's tiny face.

His son looked back up at him, eyes blue as a cloudless summer sky and huge and round as marbles. Evidently, he was wide awake and utterly unconcerned that it was three in the morning.

"Uh... Hello," Draco said softly, just a bit out of breath.

Scorpius just kept looking, waiting. Draco imagined that he was expecting more. After almost three weeks of silence, that probably was his good right.

"Well. Sorry I, uhm. Ran away from you." He pressed his lips together in consternation. "You're sort of... frightening me."

The corners of Scorpius' mouth twitched up to what might have been a smile, then his whole face pulled together in a frown. And boy, what a frown it was.

"Yes, really," Draco confirmed and nodded. "Did anyone ever tell you before that you're really tiny? I mean, look at you. You fit into the crook of my arm. Like, all of you. The lot."

Scorpius moved his eyes around as if he wanted to look for himself and confirm. Wrapped into his soft blanket as he was, he couldn't move his neck and twist his body sufficiently though, so he kicked his legs twice in frustration, then made a squeaky noise and finally gave it up. He still looked a little miffed.

"Oh, don't worry about it," Draco tried to soothe him. "I don't discriminate against short people. Short people are cool. Plus, you'll grow fast enough."

Draco reaffirmed his grip around him, making the cradle of his arms a tiny bit deeper so he could safely rock him and simultaneously support his head with his upper arm.

Incidentally, he found that he really, really liked holding this tiny human. It felt nice. Scorpius had the perfect weight and dimensions for being held and rocked. And he smelled good, too. Milky, soapy, powdery, plus a scent that didn't have a name as far as Draco knew, but it was delightful.

Judging by the chortling noises, Scorpius seemed to like the rocking, but he still wanted to hold on to something. One of his arms snaked out of the wrap. Five wee little fingers grasped at air for a bit before finding his tie and latching on to it.

"Don't hurry with the growing up, though," Draco told him, considering the rosy fingernails that were so unbelievably, incredibly, mindblowingly small. "They'll make you wear ties and go to work and such. And there's a constant shortage of naps, and no one ever holds you any more and carries you to bed when you fall asleep on the sofa. It's boring. Rubbish."

As if to confirm, Scorpius yawned. Infected, Draco yawned as well as his body suddenly remembered that he had been up and working for seventeen hours, and quasi-constantly on edge for... months, really. He distinctly recalled how he hadn't really slept properly ever since that night Astoria had woken up in a small puddle of her blood five months into her pregnancy. Looking back at it now, she had probably handled it all better than he, really.

Physically and mentally exhausted – but, for once, actually able to breathe deeply – he shambled over to the sitting room couch on which he had planned to crash half an hour ago and sat on it. Gingerly, so as to not jostle Scorpius.

He sank into the leather and leaned back with a deep sigh. He thought about taking off his shoes but then changed his mind. Too comfy as it was.

Also, he had the feeling that Scorpius wouldn't like the movement.

What's more... What if he leaned down to open the laces and accidentally dropped Scorpius?

No. No, the shoes would stay on.

Permanently, if they had to.

"How about we make a deal, you and I?" Draco asked as something occurred to him, reluctantly lifting his head again from where he had leaned it all the way back onto the backrest, then looking down at Scorpius. His eyes were wide and quizzical, as if to say What kind of deal are we talking about here? Does it involve nappies?

"You promise me you won't get yourself killed by your bumbling fool of a father even though you're tiny enough to perish if I only look at you wrong... and I promise I'll try my hardest to not screw up. What do you say?"

Scorpius seemed doubtful. He gave a small 'ah'-sound to convey this. Draco imagined him saying something like Could you expand on the 'not screw up' bit? What exactly does this entail? And I ask again: Are nappies involved here or not?

"I know, I know, it's vague. It's to cover all the bases. You see, I'm..." He sighed. His son wouldn't judge him, he could feel it. Scorpius was a fantastic conversationalist. "I'm new at this. Not to mention genetically and psychologically predestined to be shit at it, really."

Again, Scorpius made his 'ah' sound, followed by something like a burp - a distinct commentary, it seemed to Draco, on what had just been said in general. Following the burp, he wrinkled his forehead and pursed his lips at him, as if to say Dad, do you kiss my mother with that mouth?

Draco cleared his throat and thought it wise to return to the main topic at hand. "Really, though. I swear to you, I'll do my best. I swear on..."

He trailed off, pondering his life for just a second to think of something precious enough to swear on.

The most precious thing in his life. It didn't take long at all.

"I swear on you," Draco said, putting a stress onto the last word so that Scorpius would know that he meant him, "that I'll do my very best to be worthy of you somehow. I'll learn, I will. The whole... you know. Child-raising business. Nappies and everything."

Scorpius let go of his tie and put his fingers into his mouth.

"Ugh, who am I kidding. You probably know more about nappies than I do at this point."

Scorpius gave a gurgling sound which Draco was surprised to find was a laugh.

Merlin, that was the nicest sound he ever heard. It was the aural equivalent of that wonderful, undefinable baby smell. He made a mental note to figure out how to make Scorpius laugh so he could hear it all the time.

He couldn't help laughing along. Or smiling, at least. He was a little too tired to muster a full laugh.

Tomorrow, maybe. Probably.

"I'm so glad your mother is here. Not right now, mind you," he said quickly. "She'd have slapped me for saying 'shit' earlier. No. But... She'll surely save the both of us. Keep us from screwing up."

His son lifted his barely existent eyebrows.

"Yeah. I'll need her more than you, of course."

That seemed to mollify him.

Silence. Scorpius wriggled and yawned again.

"Good idea, son," Draco said and lifted a hand to tenderly stroke his tiny, tiny head. His hair was fine as feathers and so fair that it was almost invisible. "You just go to sleep. Or, you know, go back to sleep."

Scorpius made a tired sort of 'ah'-sound and reached up as far as he could with his tiny fingers with the tiny fingernails. Draco caressed it and found his forefinger caught in a surprisingly strong grasp. There was no escape from that grasp at all. Scorpius, one eye already fallen shut, gave him a look that said Got your finger. Consider it prepayment for all the hundreds of times you'll have my nose in the future.

Draco smiled. "I'll stay awake to, you know..." Since Scorpius' eyes were both shut now and his face was very quickly going slack with sleep, he lowered his voice to a bare whisper. "To hold you and... we'll figure the rest out in the morning."

/

FIN

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