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“Alright, so no peas then. Let’s see if he likes the squash.” Luka directed Vesemir, who was carefully offering spoonfuls of mashed foods to his tiny child surprise whilst Luka held little Eskel in his lap.
“Squash might be another no. Let’s give him some blueberries first. Surely he won’t spit those up.” Vesemir decided instead, scooping up the blueberry mush he’d placed on the plate beside him on the long dining hall table.
“I guess I could go awhile without being thrown up on again.” Luka agreed, bending to kiss the baby’s head when he made an annoyed sound and squirmed in his arms.
“Luka, it’s Vesemir’s job to feed his own pup.” Rennes interrupted when he entered the Great Hall and found his two younger brothers performing their food experiments with Eskel.
“Aw lay off, Rennes.” Luka stuck out his tongue at the elder Witcher, who frowned and hissed back at the pair.
“You’re both getting far too attached…” He growled, and Vesemir glared daggers back at him, not saying a word. Rennes knew he had no choice but to get attached to the baby. Eskel was his son now. His responsibility.
He was about to tell Rennes just that, and ask him why exactly he’d decided to ruin their relaxing evening with that all too familiar, ever sour, look on his face in the first place. However they were all soon greeted by their own father and collectively seemed to prefer not to cause trouble in front of him.
“How’s the boy doing, then, Lad? Eating solids already?” Barmin asked Vesemir with a warm fatherly tone, a hand resting on his own pup’s broad, grown shoulder as he watched him feeding his little squirmy bundle in Luka’s arms.
“He’s trying to.” Vesemir replied, focusing on getting Eskel to open his mouth so he could taste the blueberries he was offering him.
The baby finally gave in and allowed himself to be served, chomping down on the spoon and humming around its contents.
“I think he likes the blueberries.” Luka smiled down at the infant, who whimpered when Vesemir took his spoon away again.
“Alright, alright. More blueberries. I hear you.” Vesemir cooed at his son, offering him another spoonful.
Eskel gladly accepted this one without argument, and grabbed onto the spoon with both hands, ready to pull back if Vesemir tried to take it away again.
“Guess which one of you was as greedy as that.” Barmin chuckled, ruffling Rennes’ hair.
The eldest of the Grandmaster’s pups allowed the intrusion, simply because it was Barmin, but he frowned and brushed him off eventually, fixing his hair again so that it looked respectable.
“I can see that. Rennes was probably an angry baby.” Luka giggled.
“I wasn’t.” Rennes resented the statement.
“No, son. You were just as jolly as Vesemir. Sven was the angry one of your lot, and Luka…” Barmin’s eyes fell upon his youngest, who smiled innocently up at him. “You couldn’t be left anywhere for a moment. Always had to be held no matter what.”
“It’s why he’s such an attention whore now.” Sven interrupted when he finally joined them, taking a seat across from Vesemir, Luka, and little Eskel. “You never broke him of the habit of crying for it, Da.”
“Watch your mouth, boy.” Barmin told Sven. “You’re not too big to go over my knee.”
“That was a short joke, Svenny.” Luka laughed, and Sven growled at him, only holding back his fury because Eskel was in the way.
“Boys, boys, get along please.” Barmin sighed, kissing each of their foreheads before he walked on through the Great Hall, falling in with some of the eldest Witchers who sat nearest to the hearth fire to talk.
Vesemir watched after him for a moment before Eskel started to cry and his attention was drawn back to feeding the boy his mashed blueberries.
“Try the squash now.” Luka told his brother once Eskel had finished all of his new favorite fruit and began to fuss once again.
“Alright, alright. Last one, Esk. Open up.” Vesemir offered him the spoon, now full of bright yellow mashed squash.
Eskel obeyed, opening his mouth and expecting more blueberries.
However, when he didn’t get the food he wanted, and was met with a new, strange taste in his poor little mouth instead of sugary, blueberry goodness, he spat the squash all back out, all over himself and Luka, who made a face and handed Eskel over to a now laughing Sven.
“Well, I guess we both need a bath now. Good work, little wolf.” Luka wiped what he could off his clothes but there was still mush and slobber stuck to him all over.
“You look like a monster had you in its maw!” Sven chuckled at his brother, gently bouncing the baby in his arms until he could hand him back over to Vesemir.
Rennes watched his brothers with the baby from the doorway to the Great Hall, leaning against the threshold and silently disapproving of their shared joy with the pup.
Didn’t they all realize that someday, in the near future, that Eskel would have to face the trials?
Ignoring such a fact was foolish, and would end in heartbreak for them all no doubt.
Rennes sighed and turned his back on his brothers, climbing the winding stairs on the way to his office where he could find some comfort in solitude.
Part of him wished to be involved with little Eskel, to take part in raising him up as the others did, to build a bond with him from such an early age. However, he knew it was a foolish desire until after the boy’s trials were over and done with. Then finally he’d be able to call him Nephew.
And he did so hope that day would come, for Eskel’s sake and for all of his family that had grown to love him so deeply already.