Boil the beets, then mash them up, then boil them some more. Add some water. It needs to be more liquid than solid. Tiz's explanation is simple, but is taking so long…! Edea groans, hunching over one of the stoves in the mess-deck aboard the Eschalot. The longer he waits, the more that Leon cries, and it's really beginning to get on her nerves. Human baby cries are so annoying! Why couldn't he have been a puppy or a kitten?
She mashes the beets down angrily with a fork as she mixes the water in, glancing over her shoulder as she does so.
The other three are seated at a small table, passing the baby between them. He stops crying for a few moments every time he's given to someone new, as though hopeful this new person will feed him, but when it becomes apparent that this person won't, his wails start again. It'd be kind of cute if his crying wasn't so piercing.
Ringabel cringes every time it's his turn to hold the baby, his large hands awkward and fumbling as he tries to both support Leon's head and hold him, though the baby ends up seated more on the table than on Ringabel's arms. He does seem to be trying at least, cooing quietly at the baby in an attempt to comfort, but Edea rolls her eyes at him all the same as Ringabel quickly passes the screaming infant on to Agnès once he starts up again.
Agnès is just as awkward as Ringabel but decidedly more gentle, tucking the baby against her shoulder and holding his head in her hand. She's removed her gloves so that the fabric doesn't disturb his soft baby skin, and the child seems to have taken to her most of all, pressing his wet face into her shoulder as she bounces him very carefully. The Wind Vestal is so absorbed with comforting the baby that she doesn't see the daft little smile that crosses Tiz's face each time he watches.
And then when Leon gets enough of being bounced and not being fed, it's off to Tiz he goes, who sticks his little finger in the baby's mouth, an act which seems to mollify him the most. Tiz really does look good with a baby, Edea thinks. Lucky Agnès.
"You almost finished there?" Tiz calls over to her as Leon gnaws angrily at his pinkie.
Oh. Oh right. Edea turns back to the simmering pot. "Almost finished!" She says, mashing some more. They seem alright to her, but Tiz was very specific about them being as soft as possible. The baby didn't have teeth to chew with, after all. He was being awfully protective of some kid he just met, she thinks with a grumble. Perhaps that was just Tiz for you.
The baby does another pass around the table by the time Edea's done with the mush. It looks gross in her opinion, but she scoops it up into a little bowl anyway and brings it back to the group, holding a spoon in her other hand.
"Okay… who's doing this?" She asks. "I cooked, someone else gets to feed him."
"I don't think I should be the one to feed him," Ringabel says quickly. "Perhaps someone with a more womanly touch." He tucks his hands under the table, just in case Edea tries to pass anything to him anyway.
Agnès hesitates. "I am not certain how babies are fed." He seems too small to do it himself, doesn't he?
Edea shrugs. "Don't look at me! All I know about feeding kids is airships nyoom nyooming into mouths and that babies like to spit up. All the time."
Tiz is a patient person, but he has his limits. Rolling his eyes ever so lightly, he very gently places the baby in Agnès's arms. "If you hold him, I'll feed him… I've only seen this done with larger babies who can already sit up. He needs some support and I don't think I can do this on my own."
That makes sense, Edea thinks, as Tiz takes the bowl and spoon from her. Leon's still a little too small to sit up on his own and he leans with his back against Agnès, squirming and fussing and throwing his fists around, while the Vestal tries to steady him in her arms. He's gonna be a good fighter when he grows up, Edea ponders on...
Especially when his fist catches the beet covered spoon in Tiz's hand, sending it crashing to the floor.
The group goes quiet. "Edea…" Tiz says.
"I'll get another," she offers, and hurries to do so.
It turns out, feeding angry, hungry babies is hard. Edea fetches two more spoons before Tiz gives up and scoops some of the warm mash onto his finger, tapping it against the baby's lower lip. That's a little more appealing than a cold metal spoon it seems, though Leon spits the beets out as soon as he tastes and screams even harder. Agnès looks incredibly uncomfortable as red mash smears on her dress, but she keeps a hold on the child as gentle as it is firm.
Poor little guy, Edea thinks unhappily, her hands over her ears. Poor us.
Ringabel has since retreated back on deck, claiming that he wants to pack up the child's things and bring it down… but has yet to return. Airy, surprisingly, had gone with him for "supervision". Edea's wondering if she can get away with the same claim, since Ringabel is obviously a weakling that needs help carrying things, when Tiz finally manages to pop a bit of the mash into the baby's mouth, and the baby manages to actually swallow.
Leon, that stupid cutie that he is, looks surprised. Then pleased, and he opens his mouth for more.
The remaining adults sag in relief, and Tiz wastes no time shoveling more food in the kid's mouth.
"Wow, he's really set of lungs on him." Edea says sometime later as the pile of mash in the bowl gets smaller and smaller as the baby boy eats, gurgling happily through swallows.
"Are… all children this loud?" Agnès looks absolutely horrified. She's been around children before, certainly, but her exposure to babies this small has been minimal! She's certain she was never so loud as a child.
"He can't help it," Tiz tries to defend the child as he feeds him a little more. "He can't talk, and he can't express himself any other way through but through crying. I know it's hard, but we just have to take care of him until we find his mother, remember?" However long that would be. He doesn't want to think about that.
"Mm, you're right Papa Tiz!" Edea cheers as the baby quiets the more he's fed.
Tiz looks up at her, eyes wide. "Don't call me that." He frowns. "I'm not his father. I'm not yours, either."
She reaches over to pinch his cheek, causing him to grimace. "I didn't say you were~" She winks, and he just turns red, tucking his head down to his chest and quietly going back to feeding the little thing. It doesn't help when Agnès giggles.
They look almost like a family, Edea thinks with a soft smile as she props her chin on her hand. Tiz is so nice and gentle, and Agnès is so patient. If only the baby didn't have blond hair, he could certainly pass for theirs. She giggles, imagining how Crystalists might take the Wind Vestal having a baby of her own.
Ringabel pokes his head into the room, Airy poking out underneath. "… It seems much more quiet in here." He observes cautiously.
Edea turns and scowls at him. "No thanks to you. I think that means it's your turn to clean up and cook dinner for us." She pokes her thumb at the pile of dishes sitting in the empty basin, and the very sad pile of vegetables left over from when she and Tiz had been deciding on what to feed their charge.
He sighs, disappears for a moment, and then enters the room properly this time, running a hand through the back of his hair. "I suppose I could step in… after all, we're already subjecting the poor thing to your cooking." He manages to dodge the spoon she throws at him, ducking as her aim goes wide.
"Just start cooking!" She yells. Leon isn't the only one hungry, after all.
Glancing back at the other three, she notices that Leon, his tummy full, is leaning back against Agnès's chest, his eyes closing quickly. Probably tired himself out. Tiz keeps a finger against the baby's lips until he stops moving them, then wipes it carefully on the edge of a napkin. "I think he's done… I can take him now, Agnès." He sets the bowl aside and reaches his hands out.
Instead, the Vestal turns the baby so that his face is cushioned against her chest, cradling him gently with her hands and holding him close. "No…" She says, and her face is pink. "I would not want to disturb him by moving him too much. He's fine here." She insists, and hunches over a little, as if to hide the baby and her face with her long hair.
Tiz takes a deep breath, watching her. "Okay. If you're sure…" He picks up one of the blankets Leon had been swaddled in, and now carefully tucks it around the baby, snatching his hands away when they get too close to Agnès's… person. "I'll take him if you get tired." He mumbles.
"Oh, how are you going to eat, Agnès?" Edea asks, enjoying the awkward atmosphere between her two friends. "Tiz will feed you, won't you Tiz?"
"Edea!" Tiz turns on her, scowling. "Agnès doesn't need me to feed her! She's an adult, she can feed herself."
Agnès titters nervously. "My hands are full, but I will figure something out when it's ready to eat."
"It will be ready soon," Ringabel promises from over near the stove. "I'll have it ready in … what's that phrase, two shakes of a lamb's tail?" Something bubbles ominously.
Tiz breathes deeply again before answering. "Alright Ringabel, your time's up." At the other boy's protests, claiming that Tiz wasn't counting correctly, the Shepherd stands up to return the bowl of mash and the dirty utensils, and joins Ringabel at the stove, picking up a knife to help.
Edea scoots closer to Agnès. "It's a good thing we have Tiz," she says slyly, not missing the way that Agnès's eyes drift between the sleeping baby in her arms and the brunet now beginning to cook. "I don't know what we'd do without him!"
"Yes," Agnès breathes, and her hands are stroking the baby of the baby's head gently. Her back is very stiff, her posture unmoving, so as to disturb the baby as little as possible. "He is truly invaluable."
"Mmhm," Edea agrees."And don't you think this is great practice?"
"Yes…" Agnès breathes again, until she pauses and turns her head toward Edea, frowning. "Edea, really! You and Ringabel both are being completely…"
Edea cuts her off, wrinkling her nose. "Wait, Agnès… what's that smell?"
In Agnès's arms, the sleeping Leon wiggles, and then begins to cry again.