hey baby.

[regroup]

Comments

[regroup]

He's not going to break, Mako, I promise.

[ and watch him fall off the bed the next time she naps with him, ha! it's hard to be a responsible parent. ]

[fissions]

[ MAKO DOESN'T LET HIM FALL OFF THE BED. ]

He could have, if you were a second slower.

[ admittedly she's always loved his reflexes. ]

What happened to his pacifier?

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I can't find it.

[ and if there were ever more panic in a single text, it was not a text exchanged between the two of them. ]

[fissions]

[ oh, no. ]

Did you look under his stack of clean clothes?

[regroup]

I've looked everywhere.

[ mako, help. ]

[fissions]

[ ... babe, you know she loves you and their kid, but she's so relieved she's not you right now. two minutes later: ]

I found it.

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What do you mean you found it?

[fissions]

[ she's sorry :( ]

In my bag. Underneath the toys he shoved into it.

Do we have a spare?

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[ akjdss do we have a spare? she asks, as if he hadn't complained extensively about last week's park shenanigans. ]

No. He threw his purple one in the pond when we were walking through the park last Tuesday.

[fissions]

[ SHE SAID SHE WAS SORRY WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT. but no, seriously, mako grimaces at that. ]

I'm surprised that didn't choke a duck. How quickly can you come here?

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You want me to come there with a screaming baby in tow?

[ because it's started. it's started. ]

[fissions]

[ ...mako is so, so sorry, sweetheart, love of her life, her sun and stars etc etc ]

I love you?

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Bring a new binkie home.

[ he's questioning his life decisions here. all of them. ]

Bring 10.

[ if he doesn't cave and go get one from the store first. they're an economical 1 car family. ]

[fissions]

[ she's just staring forlornly at the one between her fingers. how can the absence of one tiny thing cause so much misery? ]

Did you try giving him his apple juice?

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[ mako. he loves and adores you, and you're the very best mom, but you also work 5 days a week and he has weathered far more tantrums and lost binkies than you. only difference is, other times? there's always been a spare. apple juice isn't going to work. ]

No.

[fissions]

[ Daddy Becket is the best, no doubt about it, the stalwart warrior, stout in the face of tantrums and lost binkies. ]

That bad?

[regroup]

That bad.

[ it's a really good thing they're texting, because he's doing the jiggle-walk and shooshing in yancy's ear, which means yancy's hollering in raleigh's ear, and he might be a little deaf after today. ]

[fissions]

[ she's coming home soon, baby, hang in there! ]

I'll be home in an hour. [ that is, if the house is still standing. ]

[regroup]

[ the house is still standing.

raleigh isn't, though. he's sitting in the middle of the living room with a screaming yancy. and sure, he'd quieted for a little bit, long enough for raleigh to feed him. but other than that, it's been perpetual. he doesn't even get up to greet mako when she walks through the door, just waits for her to come and find them and then he wordlessly stands and deposits the screaming child in her arms.

dad needs a break. dad is going outside. ]

[fissions]

[ poor dad, poor, poor dad.

Mako takes screaming Yancy and puts the pacifier in his mouth. Aside from the initial resistance, he takes to it and quiets down permanently, and after the whole temper thing, he's pretty tired, too, and she soothes him before putting him in his day-cot to rest, feeling incredibly guilty for subjecting Raleigh to the horror of an inconsolable baby. ]

[regroup]

[ yancy is the worst baby.

actually, he's the best, but raleigh is having what is safe to call a bad day, and needs some time to himself. so he takes a walk; he goes to the local coffee shop and enjoys an espresso by the window. he orders another drip coffee to go, and a cheese danish when he's done, and returns home with the coffee in hand and still chewing.

raleigh feels incredibly better after that break, though maybe not better enough to smile or skip; he's not smiling or skipping when he reenters the house, though he does seek out mako (to complain to at length about their son, because jesus christ). ]

Killing kaiju did not prepare me for that.

[fissions]

[ Mako's tidying up the house when he comes home, significantly less unhappy but still quite under the weather, and she doesn't blame him -- it really was a bad day, and a part of her feels guilty that she hadn't come home sooner to relieve him.

So she does her best and cleans up while he's gone, setting the clean dishes back onto the board and folding the clothes -- things Raleigh usually does because Mako's usually dead tired when she comes home.

She sets the stack of magazines straight on the coffee table before she goes over and wraps her arms around him. He can complain all he wants, she'll listen. ]

No, it didn't. To be fair, nothing will have prepared you for that.

[regroup]

[ mako is a saint and awesome and raleigh adores her, but he's still fussy. the wrapping of his arms around mako's shoulders in return comes belatedly, and with a sigh. but he doesn't spill coffee on her or anything, and he squeezes her like he needs to reaffirm that he's not mad at her, or even at yancy. it's not his fault he's ridiculously dependent on his binkie, it's theirs for not weening him off it. ]

I can't exactly blast our baby with a plasma canon, or use him to build a wall.

[ .......raleigh.

don't compare your baby to the tools of your other trade, it doesn't sound healthy. ]

[fissions]

[ at this point, raleigh is the saint, barring the whole comparing his baby to the tools of his other trade thing. Sometimes Mako forgets what he deals with at home, how he works to keep everything together while she brings home the bacon, and she only pauses to give him a lazy look of reproach. ]

No, you can't. [ But even then it's half-hearted at best, and she's cuddling into his embrace, feeling him squeeze her and heartened that the affection is returned. She doesn't like when he's angry with her, rare as it is. She tiptoes to kiss his cheek. ]

But maybe you should take a little break. Let me take care of him for awhile?

[regroup]

I — [ don't hate that idea at all, but there's a very important question to ask before he accepts her proposition. ]

How long is a while?

[ because their son is a handful. but he's a sweetheart.

he tries to feed raleigh his baby food and sits quietly on the couch with a few blocks while raleigh vacuums. you know all those times they call you and babble loving baby talk at you, mako? well, raleigh gets that 24/7 and wouldn't change it for the world. besides, who else is he going to sing the fresh prince of bel-air theme song to when it's just the two of them? ]