Chapter Text
Bodhi came to dinner with Carmen. What was new was Ibyss asleep against his chest. Osi was nowhere in sight.
If he wasn’t afraid of waking him, he would’ve fell into his chair, but he is, so he carefully lowered himself and sighed in relief when the three-month-old didn’t so much as twitch. Everyone's volume immediately goes to a low point of average and for it, Bodhi is grateful.
“Long night?” Violet asks seeing as Bodhi reaches for his salad fork and misses. His cousin is eyeing him too.
Bodhi sighs. “Addair is going through the motions. Doesn’t want to sleep unless he’s being held and Ibyss is getting clingy because his brother’s getting loud.”
Addair needed reassurance when his brother cried every time Osi tried to put him to bed.
Violet looks at the oldest of the three, still asleep with his pacifier in thoughtfully. “I’m sorry.”
He shrugs “kids will be kids.” He reaches for the glass of water in front of him and misses.
Liam excuses himself and disappears. Imogen watches him go before giving Garrick a look.
He knocks just loud enough to be heard; his response comes in the form of Osi using lesser magic to lock then unlock the door. Which meant that it wasn't locked before, but that action was his invitation inside.
“I can’t keep you safe, but I can keep you warm, mm”
Liam mouth snaps shut immediately to hear the humming that follows.
“I can’t stop the rain, but we can ride the storm”
“We can ride the storm”
He’s watching Osi sway with the youngest two in her arms. Ibyss is still whimpering a little, but the sound is dying out as she sings his cries away in a soft and quiet voice.
“We can make it through it all.”
Go and show us what we really are.”
He doesn’t make a sound as he crosses the floor. Osi’s back is to him, over her shoulder he can see Isla watching tiredly. She sees him and squirms a little. Liam was bonding with that one. He held the others just as much, but Isla took a liking to him. Maybe it’s because in his arms, she could watch the older two boys shriek and cry without losing her hearing.
Without interrupting Liam rests his hand on her mother's side. She flinches just a bit but it’s probably because he touches felt different than Bodhi’s and she realized that it wasn’t Bodhi that had come back. Her singing stops and Liam’s kind of sad about it, it was nice. “Can I trade you?”
Her eyes fall to the plate in his hand, and she frowns “you really don’t have to.”
She looks just as exhausted as Bodhi. Maybe she’s swaying to keep herself awake just as much as she’s trying to put the babes to sleep.
“I want to. Here, give me Isla.” The look in her eyes says that she wants to put up a fight, but she must not have the strength to do so right now because she just turns into him and passes Isla who reaches out in approval.
“Hi, sweetheart. You look like you need a nap.” He greets.
“Thank you,” Osi says and takes the plate from him.
“Mhm, go sit.” She listens while Liam watches her.
The beige night slip seemed more like an allusion to Ruel and their colors, than anything night thing he had seen in Tyrrendor. But then again, like the men he invited to bed; the women weren’t exactly there to lounge around. Her hair was a messy work of art falling all the way to her butt. Liam wondered if she let Bodhi wash it for her. She used to braid the thick curls for bed so she wouldn’t wake up and have to deal with it. She hated not having a wrap that she wore before Basgiath. Maybe she had one just like it in Ruel now.
Liam didn’t have to ask Osi how to coax Isla to sleep, all it took was him holding her and she started drifting. And after a few minutes of Osi eating while letting Ibyss fall asleep in her arms, she tries to move him. It’s like watching someone tiptoe around a sleeping dragon that isn’t theirs. But once he’s safely deposited in the bassinet she immediately relaxes and heaves a sigh. Then she quietly makes her way to the bathroom and washes the fork in the sink. When she brings it back to him, it’s with the plate he brought her, but everything has exactly half missing from it. He wants to argue that she needs it more than he does but she’s already gone, and he can hear the blankets rustle.
Osi’s gone before her head even hits the pillow.