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Ruby gave birth six short months later to a happy little girl. Raising Nebel was no joke. It was a lot of work but between the three of us we managed it. Ruby was allowed to sleep through the nights as her body grew an infant inside of herself. Nebel's cries for attention and changing and hunger were attended to by Weiss and I while Ruby rested dreamily and she did her part in growing our second.
Nebel often woke us up during the odd hours of the night with cries for food for his growing body or because he needed a change or because he just wanted some attention. I held and rocked him gently while he cried. I think he typically wanted his birth mother and not me when he wanted attention. I think. He couldn't exactly tell me 'not you.' But I was pretty sure he wanted the woman who gave birth to him in those moments.
Sometimes he just whined and whimpered while I held and rocked him in my arms. He cooed and gurgled and stretched his little arms out and around while I held him. But if I set him down then he would resume his crying so maybe he did want daddy's love. I just couldn't be sure because he couldn't fucking talk and tell me what he wanted. He could only stretch and gurgle and whimper for me to run my hand through his soft white hair. And in the blink of an eye six months had passed and Ruby gave birth to a happy little girl which she named Garnet. Garnet looked like her mother. With the silver eyes and red to black hair.
Ruby insisted there were parts of me to her looks in the chin and nose. But I didn't see it. I thought Garnet was the spitting image of her birth mother. I thought it was an excellent thing. I thought it was adorable and given the choice I would have all three of Ruby's next babies be exactly like her as well. I knew that wasn't what she wanted. I knew she wanted to see me in her babies but I was inclined to witness less.
And I did see myself in Nebel. In the cheek bones and the jawline. He looked like me with Weiss's hair and my eyes. He had big blue gorgeous eyes which would make him an absolute lady killer one day. You could just tell. He was going to be a handsome young man and hopefully he'd be aware of his limits unlike I had been as a young man.
Garnet was adorable and she giggled and burst out laughing at the slightest provocation. Taiyang assured me that Ruby had been like that during one of his visits to see his grandkids. I thought that that was especially promising. She laughed a lot and it was infectious and Nebel laughed along with her from listening in from their separate rooms.
Nebel was normally a serious baby but his sister brought out that best in him. Weiss thought that his seriousness was like me but I thought it was like her. I couldn't imagine that she was a giggly baby. I had never been a baby and there was nobody to really ask about it. Well, I suppose I had been a baby but only briefly due to my accelerated growth rate. I didn't have a birth which made me stand out in our household as the obvious monster in the room.
Garnet would wake up Nebel in the middle of the night. She needed attention much more than he did during his first six months. She needed mommies' and daddy's love in the middle of night. She needed played with and when she cried for food or attention or a changing she would wake up Nebel who would cry along with her and force two of us to get up and attend to them. I would always be one of the ones who got up during those times. I never forced Weiss and Ruby to handle it and rolled over to sleep. I wouldn't be able to sleep anyways so I went and I gave Nebel or Garnet some of daddy's attentions. I would gently play with their feet in the crib and let them kick. I tickled Garnet and held Nebel close to me and played with his hair like I knew he enjoyed.
Weiss and Ruby hadn't yet asked me for another kid yet. As far as I was aware they weren't ready and were back on the pill. But they'd one day ask me for another one and after the first two with nothing going wrong I'd struggle to say 'no' to them. That was, when they did ask me for another kid, I'd struggle to tell them 'no.' They now knew how painful and what a chore being pregnant was. They knew the risks. I couldn't really deny them when they asked.
"You're going to have a lot of little siblings," I informed Nebel one night. I said it gently as I stroked his hair. I scratched him like a cat. He loved it and stretched into my fingers while I held him with one hand. I got over my fear of dropping him through repetition and exposure to holding him aloft in my arms. I still worried about it though. I was too strong and he was so fragile. I could so easily crush him but I could also easily hold him aloft.
Ruby walked in holding Garnet to her bosom. "What are you saying?" She asked. "I couldn't hear you from the other room."
"Oh… just…" I trailed off. "I was letting Nebel know he was going to have a lot of little siblings. I'm mostly assuming. You and Weiss haven't brought up having another one. But I think that you will. So I was just letting him know. And talking to myself," I whispered.
"Aw," Ruby breezed and rocked Garnet in her arms. "You would be on board if I wanted another one?" She asked.
"I mean… I'd love to grant your wishes. If I at all can. And if my Mother had influence over my children I'd know by now. So I don't have any good reason to tell you 'no' when you ask me for another one. I just hope it isn't, you know, super soon. Just… maybe wait until Garnet is at least a year old? Before you ask me? For my sake? I'll say 'yes' sooner. If you ask. But I'd like it if they were a little bit apart."
"Well then I won't ask before you're ready. But you're right. I want more. I want at least two more. Hopefully a little blonde boy at some point."
"Do you want one bad enough to do some in vitro stuff?" I asked.
"Well, no. I'd like a little blonde boy but I want it to happen naturally. I know Weiss wants a little girl that bad. But I want it to happen naturally. Ideally," she murmured. She twisted the baby into her shoulder and rocked with full body bounces. Garnet let out a gurgling, bubbling noise as she was bounced. She sounded like she was having a blast. Nebel on the other hand was dead serious as I ran my fingers through his hair and stroked him.
He wiggled and twisted and crawled a little but I held him down and traced his hair and back. He let out a happy little whimper as I did and I touched him and his eyelids grew heavy. He couldn't keep his big blue eyes open. He was being sent off to slumberland under my attention. He sighed heavily and let out a tiny yawn.
"You're doing such a good job. I'm proud of you," Ruby informed me while she bounced her first born.
"You think so?" I asked at a whisper.
"Yeah. I do. They're only babies and you love on them with all your heart. You're going to do so well when they are older. I know you worry about it. But you will."
"We'll see," I granted.
"No," she denied and Nebel stirred and I went back to petting his head and back. Garnet warbled again in Ruby's arms. Nebel stirred a little more but I kept him down and his face mushed into the mattress of his crib. "You're going to do so well. It's in your mentality and how you wanted to unlock their auras. You know when to be strict and harsh and you know when to be gentle. You're so sweet. You know what you're doing. It's like… you just know. You know? You know when Nebel needs food or attention just off the sound of his cries from across the house. You just know. I'm not really sure how you know, but you know when to send Weiss or me in here to feed him or Garnet just based on the pitch of the sound. How do you do that?"
"He sounds different when he's hungry than when he wants attention. Garnet too. I don't know. They just sound different. Nebel is more demanding when he's hungry and wants some food from his mammas. But he's sort of begging and pleading when he just wants attention. And I'm not sure it's me he wants but so long as he isn't hungry it's me he's getting." I kept stroking him until he was snoozing away with his face down and his butt up. Poor exhausted little thing. It must be so tiring crying all the time and demanding things from his parents.
"Yeah. I guess. But you can just tell. Off of nothing. You just know when he's hungry and you send Weiss or I in and then you get up and look after Garnet when we're dealing with him. And, okay, sometimes they are both hungry. What do you do then?"
"I'm awake anyways," I confessed. "I'm up when they and either of you two are. I can't get back to sleep so easily. My drugs are sedating but only at first and only up to a point." I gently scratched behind Nebel's little ears against the skin of his scalp and he rolled and pushed his head harder into my hand like a cat.
"That's what I mean… Am I making any sense at all?"
"Not really to me. But I don't think it's your fault. I still worry because I have to be worried. It keeps me in check in a healthy way. What would I do if I wasn't worried? I'd run amuck. I have to have these little things keeping me awake and keeping me in line."
"So that you can be a good parent though, right?" She asked. Garnet was drifting off in her arms while she gently rocked the baby.
"If I can be a good parent at all. You know what I mean? If I'm going to be a good parent, and I'm not sure that I can, I'll do it by worrying about my freaking kids. How's it comin' over there?"
"She's almost asleep," Ruby purred. "Then we can head back to bed. Get some rest ourselves. Or I will. Gods only know what you'll do."
"I'll get some sleep if you're there beside me…" I trailed. "I get lonely…"
"Even with Weiss?"
"Even with Weiss. I miss you and I miss her when you both take off to feed the babies in the middle of the night. What am I going to do? Sleep alone? No. I'll be awake and worrying alone. Thank you very much."
"It doesn't have to be that way," Ruby hummed.
"It does a little. I can't explain it. But I have to be worried. Or else I can't function. I have to stress about what kind of father I am or else I'll be a shoddy one. I have to. That's literally the job. It's what you asked me for when you looked up at me with those big silver eyes and told me that you wanted a baby. So yeah. That's that."
Weiss and Ruby fed both Garnet and Nebel from both of their bodies without really caring about who delivered which one. I thought that that was really something else. The way both blended into being both babies' mommas. Weiss sometimes fed Garnet and Ruby sometimes fed Nebel. I suspected that they kept it mixed up intentionally to let the babies know that they had two different sources.
And also… I wasn't an expert. But also wasn't breast feeding a time when babies and their mommas bonded? I wouldn't really know. I never fed either baby using nothing more than my fucking body and sheer will power. Weiss and Ruby had that super power.
"How do you both handle feeding them?" I asked. "When they both want food? Does Weiss feed Nebel and you just feed Garnet?"
"We alternate," Ruby informed me. She made a flip-flopping gesture with her hand. "So sometimes I feed Nebel and she feeds Garnet. I'm not sure if they have a favorite but Nebel bites less than Garnet. She's full of vinegar and she is fiesty. Weiss and I both agree. Nebel bites less. He's a pumpkin."
"Yeah?" I wondered.
"When Garnet is hungry she goes in. You know? She really wants it and she's demanding. She scrambles and fights tooth and claw to get fed. She's a little demon. I mean, I love her to death and I like feeding her but she's just so full of energy while Nebel is a gentle soul. He knows that if he's patient he'll get his fill. That's not to say he's always patient. He's still a baby. Just less instistent than Garnet."
"Huh…" I trailed. There was this whole branch of parenting I knew nothing about because I was a guy and I just couldn't know the babies the way that their mommas could. I was a touch jealous. But only a touch.
"Garnet's asleep…" Ruby whispered. "She loves mommy's voice. Both Weiss and mine. But probably Weiss's more because she can sing and all and sometimes she just sings to the babies while we're up here."
"She does while I'm up here with her too. And she's feeding or giving attention to one of them. I love her voice too. It's a good sound. I can see why the babies like it."
"Aw. They love it. They can't get enough of it." Ruby squealed and rubbed Garnet's face with her own cheek. She loved mushing the babies like that. Garnet, I think, liked it more than Nebel did. Nebel barely tolerated it.
"I'm going to put Garnet down. Then we'll head off to bed. Okay?" Ruby asked. She kept bouncing the baby she delivered in her arms as the baby hummed off to sleep ever so gently.
"Sure," I murmured and I looked down at my son's face while Ruby left the room. I cupped his cheek. "My precious little son. Grow up big and strong for the others. Okay?" I kept my tone soft as I looked down at him. "Rest and grow well. You're so tired. You don't do anything other than grow, do you?"
I stroked his pretty white hair out of his face. Weiss's pretty hair here on my son's head. Hopefully Weiss was downstairs sleeping well and not up worrying the way I would be. And so sue me. I had a lot of my plate.
"Why are you sleepy?" I wondered as I pet his hair. He gurgled in his little sleep absently under my touch. "You don't do anything. It's not like you go sprinting through the house. You just lay around. So why so tired, little love? Poor thing."
"You ready?" Ruby asked by the door.
"Yeah. I am," I murmured and stopped petting Nebel's face. I walked out and gently closed the door behind me to Nebel's room.
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-WG