Work Text:
Gale wasn’t sure how they had slipped into such a routine. And yet, he was grateful for it, in all the chaos they dealt with on a daily basis. Everything from mind flayers to bibberbang mushrooms, and many more that they hadn’t planned on encountering. But somehow, in all the chaos and all the terror, he’d found an odd little family. And Gale was grateful for it, more than he could ever put into words. He woke to quiet murmuring, a cranky frown on his face as he was transferred from one set of arms to another.
“Why the frown, dear one?” Halsin. Gale happily curled into his warmth with a little sigh. “Astarion needed a few hours worth of rest. Surely you can handle me for a while,” Halsin teased softly. Gale let out a soft grumble and relaxed against him, hands clenching into his shirt.
“Go back to sleep, cub. You need your rest.”
When he finally woke for good, to someone pulling clothing over his head, he let out a deeply irritated groan. Gale kicked his feet slightly, letting his displeasure be known as he reached one hand up to rub at his sleepy eyes.
“Good morning to you, too.” Jaheira laughed softly.
“Mngh.” He glared at her, his protest lost behind the pacifier that had somehow made its way into his mouth as he slept.
“Well,” she explained, finishing pulling the shirt over his head. “You were wet for one thing, and for another we don’t want you catching cold while we travel. The city is only a few sleeps away. Soon there will be far sweeter things than tadpoles to catch your mind, hmm?” Jaheira wasted absolutely no more time in getting him into fresh trousers and socks. “Perhaps I can show you the best place to buy sweets?”
The promise of something sweet had him slightly in a better mood as she sat him up and patted at his cheek. “There’s your pretty smile, little cub. Now come and have breakfast.” Jaheira helped him to his feet and he toddled off in the general direction of the campfire.
Gale squeaked playfully as an arm caught him around the waist.
“Come here and have something to eat,” Wyll’s eyes were full of fondness as he tugged Gale to sit down beside him. “We don’t want a repeat of yesterday, hmm? No tantrums because of your empty little belly.”
Gale blushed and hid behind his hands.
“When will you learn?” Astarion drawled, and Gale gave yet another squeak as he was lifted off his feet and settled into the vampire’s lap. “You can’t just let him sit beside you, you’ve got to feed him or he won’t eat at all.” Astarion stole his pacifier and Gale growled at him, his protest quickly cut off by a spoonful of berry mash. “Now eat, love. We’ve got to get moving soon.”
Gale spent the morning’s walk clinging to Halsin’s hand, eagerly pointing out any and all plants he could see as the party made their slow progress out of Reithwin. Halsin patiently interpreted all his baby babbling with endless smiles. That is, until Gale tripped over a rock and began having an overtired meltdown. Of course, he was swiftly gathered into a set of arms to be soothed, his open mouth wails causing most everyone to stop in their tracks. “Oh, it’s not as bad as that,” Halsin tutted. “You’re alright.” Rather quickly due to his rapidly devolving breakdown, the party decided to take a short rest and have something to eat. Gale came halfway back to himself just as he was being cleaned and changed into a fresh diaper. Mortified, he hid his face in his hands and let out a drawn out whimper.
“It isn’t as bad as all that, darling,” Astarion being the one tasked to help him somehow made the situation even worse. Gale’s stomach gave a rather painful cramp and he tried to draw his legs up and roll onto his side so that he could properly curl into a ball and hide. However the vampire’s reflexes were too quick for him, and he grabbed Gale’s ankles. “None of that. Stay still, there’s a good boy. It’ll be over much faster if you lay still.” Gale went lax in his grip, a few stressed out tears falling down his cheeks. He’d never be able to come to terms with the fact that even outside of his headspace, his rather petulant stomach often betrayed him in the worst kind of ways, leading to the executive decision by his caregivers that Gale would be spending the foreseeable future wearing protection 24/7. It further didn’t help that Jaheira had somehow managed to figure out a way to find the thickest diapers imaginable. It only made it harder for him to resist his headspace when every single step caused a telltale waddle. But somehow, despite the fact, it managed to make him feel cherished rather than irritated. If he thought about it for too long he’d get cranky at first, but now that he’d gotten used to having several caregivers who constantly reassured him, Gale could only feel security in the matter. As such, Astarion’s light pat to his calf had him relaxing. “There’s a good boy.” Astarion repeated with a little smile. In no time at all, he was cleaned up and fresh, desperately reaching for Astarion with a sniffle. Once he’d had his fill of cuddles, and a bit of a nap, they set off again toward the city. After a bit of a late night confrontation with the githyanki, they finally reached Wyrm’s Crossing the next day. Gale rested his chin on Halsin’s shoulder, curiously watching everything behind them as the elf moved toward the checkpoint into the city. He’d yet again woken impossibly small, only feeling safe and content if Halsin was holding him every moment he possibly could. The way it felt being fully supported by his arms, with his feet nowhere near to touching the ground, just had him feeling the smallest he’d ever been. As they reached the checkpoint and joined the line of people being screened by the flaming fist and the odd sort of robots, Halsin turned him around and propped his arm beneath Gale’s bum. His other arm went securely across Gale’s chest, so he was effectively sitting with his back against the elf’s chest. Halsin’s body language was relaxed and confident as he chatted idly to Shadowheart. Gale slightly kicked his feet, sucking his pacifier while he looked round at the chattering masses. Some of them were angry, standing off to the side and yelling a lot. It made him a bit scared, but as they moved up in the queue, Halsin began swaying from side to side and it made him forget being scared. He just enjoyed feeling close to him and not having to think about anything really. As they reached the front of the queue, one of the guards pulled Halsin out of the line and began asking him lots of odd sorts of questions about Gale.
Gale struggled slightly, fussing a bit in the druid’s arms. Even the guardsman couldn't resist his charms, though, and as Halsin settled him against his shoulder the guard cooed at him softly.
“Hey little man, it's alright. Your Papa won't be occupied much longer, I promise!”
Gale absently nuzzled into Halsin’s neck. Papa. He liked the sound of that. He wasn't sure why he hadn't considered it sooner. But the guard was right, though. Gale really did have the best Papa. It was just a crime he hadn’t realised this before now, and a total stranger had to help him realise that Halsin was in fact, Papa. He held on a little tighter and huffed a big annoyed sigh. He very suddenly wanted to be at camp with all of his caregivers instead of out in the scary streets. Gale chewed at his pacifier, holding it tight in one hand and looking back at the others a few feet away, answering questions from a different flaming fist. As it turned out, all they really needed was for Papa to sign some annoying papers and get a matching bracelet with Gale. Then he and Papa got to go stand in a different line from everybody else, which Gale didn’t like very much, but it moved a lot faster and soon they were walking down the street on the other side of the gate. Gale squirmed and pointed, unhappy that they’d left everyone else behind.
“I know, cub. They will have to join us later, I’m afraid. The only reason we got inside the city so quickly is because of your dear little self.” And wait they did. And wait, and wait. It was getting boring. They had found rooms relatively quickly-something else to do with his and Papa’s matching bracelets-and settled into the upstairs of a tavern. But with nobody else but Papa around-and Tara, who had found them with a bit of clever magic, he got bored very fast. Gale chewed at his sleeve forlornly and frowned from his spot on the rug by the fire.
“Already tired of your story?” Halsin put the book aside and ran a hand over Gale’s hair softly. “Would you like to paint? There’s some of your paints left, I think.”
Gale scrunched his nose up.
“No paints?” Halsin laughed. “It’s getting late…Tara, I don’t suppose you could check on the others? I’m starting to worry a bit.” Tara gave Gale one last affectionate lick and then gracefully jumped out the open window to scurry across the rooftops. Gale’s eyes filled with betrayed tears and he crossed his arms with a pout. “I’m sorry, but I can’t leave you alone and do it myself, little one. Now. The sun is going down quickly. You have two choices. We can either have something to eat before bath, or have a bath before we eat something. Which one?”
Gale rubbed his eyes tiredly. It had been a very long day and the holdup at the gate only made him that much closer to a meltdown.He thought about it for a moment, and then shrugged pitifully.
“Would you like for me to choose?”
Gale nodded, bangs flopping into his face.
“Then let’s get you into a bath. You’re quite dirty from all that travel. Then we’ll see about getting you something to eat.”
Gale was not happy to have his bath. He was too disgruntled by the absence of the rest of their party to sit still. But Halsin didn’t hold it against him. He knew that their established routine (which was difficult enough to keep to with so much uncertainty in their days) was disrupted by the chaos at the gate. He could put up with some splashing and crying if it meant that the little one would tire himself out. Just as he was rinsing the soap from Gale’s hair, the doors opened and in came the others-looking dirty and very put out.
“I take it he hasn’t been behaving for you, Halsin?” Jaheira’s grin was wide under a layer of dirt and grime.
Halsin tucked a bit of wet hair behind one ear and sighed. “I won’t hold it against him. He’s had a long day.”
“I think we all have.” Jaheira nodded, then crouched down to take one of Gale’s reaching hands in her own. “Settle down, cub. All is well, hmm?”
Gale’s tense shoulders relaxed a bit at her words, and he stilled his anxious fidgeting.
“Now, let’s get the rest of the soap from your hair.” He was good as gold for Halsin after that, and even allowed the elf to feed him two bowls of rich stew. (The orb tended to sap most of his caloric intake. The wizard’s appetite could give Karlach a run for her money.) Even after a full belly, once the others had cleaned up and eaten their dinner, Gale was still hungry again by bedtime. He lounged peacefully, chest to chest with Astarion as the vampire idly played with his hair. “Time for something else to eat, poppet?” he drawled teasingly as Gale’s stomach rumbled.
Gale burrowed his face deeper into Astarion’s shoulder with a little embarrassed whine. “That stomach of yours is nearly always empty, isn’t it, you poor thing?” he nodded this time, soaking in the pitying words. “Ah, just in time.” Astarion gave Karlach a cheeky grin as she sauntered over to the bed with her arms out.
“C’mon then, Gale. Come and have a little sit down with Mama K, hmm?”
Gale perked up, happily letting go of Astarion. His eyes were trained on the object in her hands, unwavering as she picked him up and carried him to one of the comfy chairs beside the fireplace. “Astarion can go and have his snack while you have yours, eh?” He settled easily, large hazel eyes looking up at her with soft affection. The moment didn’t last long, though, before he was insistently reaching. “Oh, alright, how rude of me isn’t it? Holding your drink and not letting you have it…” the warm goat's milk would at least knock the edge off his hunger long enough to sleep. She was almost certain Jaheira had added honey to it. His eyelids drooped lower and lower, and by the time he’d taken only half the milk, he was asleep.