@daisybrien A BAZILLIONDY YEARS AGO U ASKED FOR DAMIEN + BABY AND SOMEHOW I MANAGED THAT AND APPARENTLY IT"S YOUR BIRTDAY NOW SO I THREW AN INFANT AT ARUM TOO WAAAAAAAH
Lulling (chapter 2)
[ch 1] [ao3]
Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast
Relationship: Sir Damien/Rilla, Lord Arum/Rilla
Characters: Rilla, Sir Damien, Lord Arum
Additional Tags: Second Citadel, (tagged as gen and m/f because like. r/d are a couple but that’s not the FOCUS?), Babies, (not belonging to the couple involved), Damien is good with Children, Lullabies, Gentleness, babysitting SORT OF, Established Relationship, Comfort, Lizard Kissin' Tuesday
Chapter Summary: So, maybe it's both of them.
Chapter Notes: ITS GOING UP LATE OOPS HAPPY BIRTHDAY @DAISYBRIEN MORE BABYCONTENT WAHH.
~
Okay, so, Rilla doesn't know that this plan is going to work or anything, but she knows it. Okay that doesn't make sense. Fine, whatever, but she's allowed to have slightly disordered thoughts right now because a patient just collapsed practically on her doorstep and that patient's almost-but-not-quite-toddler is now wailing next to her and Rilla really can't handle both of those situations at the same time but she has a solution! And it will probably be fine!
First step:
"Keep! Keep I need Arum now, can you gimme a hand here?"
Additional Tags: Second Citadel, (no arum so no lkt tag alas. perhaps if i write the follow-up), (tagged as gen and m/f because like. r/d are a couple but that's not the FOCUS?), Babies, (not belonging to the couple involved), Damien is good with Children, Lullabies, Gentleness, babysitting SORT OF, Established Relationship, Comfort
Summary: Sir Damien is exceptionally good with babies, in no small part because he adores them.
Notes: @daisybrien u have infected my brain. please have this, i hope it's ANYTHING. and know that if i have my druthers there WILL be a second part and the lizard WILL hold an infant. This was SUPPOOOOOSED to be just a drabble, but it got away from me entirely. I need to bolt and try to get my words in for NaNo, now, WISH ME LUCK.
~
Rilla always just happens to have Damien stop by when she has an appointment involving a baby, whether it's for the kid, or just a newer parent who she knows is likely to bring the baby along for their own appointment. Medically, she's completely confident treating adolescents and infants, but-
Saints but she doesn't know how to interact with children. She didn't know how to when she was a child, why would that have changed now? And babies seem to be able to sense her nerves, somehow. They tend to look at her exactly as skeptically as she looks at them, when all the official doctor work is taken care of.
Damien, however.
Damien is a miracle with babies. She can drop an infant into his arms and his expression always goes completely moon-eyed and adoring, and the kids love him right back. Of course they do, with his lullaby voice and his careful hands and his utter, instant devotion. So long as a kid is rocking gently in Damien's arms, they may as well be the center of the Universe.
"Trust me," Rilla says, steady and calm with her hand on a reluctant mother's arm, easing her to sit down for her own examination. "He's a natural."
Damien blushes with the praise even as he beams down at the baby, cradled perfectly in the crook of his arms for support. He sing-songs gentle encouragement as the little one wriggles in his arms, and then he drifts into an actual song, bouncing playful rhyme and lilting melody (one of the songs, Rilla has learned, that he remembers his mother singing, from when he was barely more than an infant himself), and the baby settles, eyes round and mesmerized, after only the first few notes.
Rilla's patient settles, too, her lips tilting into a surprised sort of smile as she watches one of the two most dangerous knights in the Citadel coo in delight as her baby burbles a pleased noise up at him.
Rilla grins, and she gets through the rest of the examination with the accompaniment of Damien's lullabies a few feet away.
Damien teaches the mother one of his songs before she leaves, tickling the baby's nose over the notes until she giggles. At the doorstep, she stops and shuffles her feet, the baby bundled against her chest, and she asks Rilla if, perhaps, there is a chance that the kind Sir Knight might possibly be there for her next appointment, as well?
Saint-sent, honestly. He has all the Tranquility in the world, when he needs it to wrap around some little squalling bundle, his own fears and insecurities utterly forgotten. She loves him so damn much that it makes her feel ferocious.
Rilla smiles, pats her patient's shoulder, and assures her that the kind Sir Knight absolutely will.
