Esdeath had long fallen into sleep, apparently even the ice cold ex-general couldn't help but knock herself out from pushing a lon through pinhead. In doing so she ultimately left their child with Sumr as by then Parc was seeing Thumbelina out.
When he returned after minutes of hastened scurrying through his tunnels, he had co into the lounge and saw her sitting there. Calm, but eyes filled with so unknowable sorrow as she trailed a hand through the thin and straggly hair of his daughter.
Sumr sniffled and before a tear could drop she had already swept it away. Hearing the soft thump of his footsteps she turned away from the entrance and cleaned her face as well as she could with one hand.
"She's sleeping," Sumr whispered placing her index over her lips to shush him.
Parc smirked and quicklybut gentlyremoved his shoes to leave him with the plush cushioning of his socks and seated himself besides the two.
"Do you want to hold her?"
He was hesitant but nodded just as well, holding out both his arms, Sumr slowly leaned closer and transfered the bundled infant into his arm. "She's light," he exclaid, wholly unable to hide the beaming smile rising to his cheeks as he looked down at her pudgy cheeks filled with baby fat.
"You're just strong." Another sniffle sent her turning away to wipe her nose. "Have have you thought of a na?" she asked.
"I haven't even had the chance" no, he had plenty of chances, he just didn't take them.
"No rush, you've got more than enough ti to co up with one."
That he did, she wouldn't grow over night. It would be months before she could even understand them. Still, it just didn't feel right not having one planned for her. Made him feel sick, like he'd neglected her and refused her existance.
She smacked her little lips, her head lulling side to side in discomfort and her eyelids scrunched. Parc knew what this ant and in the hopes of stopping the incoming noises began bouncing her and rocked her.
Whether it was his inexperience causing him to give to harsh of movents or simply her will to awake, she began to bawl, her voice screeching against and reverberating through the lounging room and causing Parc to recoil. To his side Sumr giggled into her hand and reached out to take her from him.
"Her, let show you how a real mommy does it." Cooing to the little one, Sumr pressed her cheek to her chest and began to rock side to side, letting the bundle listen to the soft thumping of her heart.
Just like that, her weeping abated and slowly she lulled into slumber.
It was a magical sight to Parc. Sumr held his daughter like she was a piece of priceless art and tended to her so skillfully in such a short amount of ti that it was it was just indescribable.
"You're good at that."
"I've had practice with Ruby." Her chuckle quickly cracked with her voice and her head hung. Parc watched her lip tremble and her eyes grow hazy with sorrow.
"Sumr?"
She sniffled and swept away her sorrow, "no, its, no, it's nothing. I'm fine. I'm fine." She spoke more to herself than to him.
Parc reached out a hand and set it softly atop her leg, giving her a small reassuring squeeze as he said, "hey, co on now, what's going on?"
Sumr licked her lips and stroked her thumb over the little ones cheek, "It's just" she began, head forever hanging. "I just didn't think this would affect so much. She's not even mine and I just I can't"
"You can't what?"
"I can't I can't forgive myself." Parc's mouth fell open as she continued, "I so part of is telling that I'm going to watch this little one grow but then I just think about Ruby how, how she hasn't had . How I couldn't be there for her in her most vulnerable ti. I abandoned her, I left her alone."
"You didn't abandon her Sumr. You didn't have a choice in what happened to you."
"That's just it, I did," she spun and stared him in the eye. Never once raising her voice beyond an whimpering cry, "I could have refused Ozpin at any ti. I thought I was just going on an easy escort mission when I should have just retired. I had a daughter, this beautiful little girl who depended on every day of her life and I wasn't there because I kept saying 'just one more mission.'"
"But you ca back." He urged.
"Ten years later."
"But you ca back." Parc lifted his hand from her leg and to her cheek, "not a single day went by that you didn't try to get back to Ruby. To Yang. You can say you weren't there for her, you can say you abandoned her, but when your only goal for a decade is to get back to her, that's you being the best mother you could be in the mont."
A weak smile grew on Sumr's cheeks as she turned back to the squirming bundle and shook her head after keeping silent for minutes lost in thought. "You always have to be so annoyingly right, don't you?"
"Always," he leaned in and locked a quick peck on her cheek. "You know," he moved to her ear and whispered even lower, "you could always try again." Setting a palm over her belly, Parc swiftly pulled away and stood, "anyways, I'm going to get ready for bed." Leaving Sumr staring at his back blinking profusely and soon turned her gaze down to where his hand once was. In the process she paused on the blue haired babe and then her belly before flaring scarlet.
"Did you just-" by the ti she looked up he was gone, leaving not even a sound in his wake.
"I can't" she lowered the babe onto her lap and set a freed hand over her belly. Feeling through her blouse the crystalline gem ingrained in her flesh. She'd seen one on Esdeath while she was in labour, it was rounded like hers, but heart in shape. A lump grew at the back of her throat, "is but I have Ruby and Yang"
***
"Alright!" Parc echoed to the class as he seated himself before them all atop an ornate rocking chair with a pen and notepad in his grasp. "I need baby na ideas." He muttered, pen tapping furiously atop his note pad as Glynda cast him a haping look of confusion.
Looks were shared all throughout the classroom as the students tried to comprehend his wording. "Girls nas preferably. I fyou have anything to do with ice, frost, and the cold in general, that will be a bonus Frieza? No that's just no" he scratched his head with his pen.
"Um, sir, what are you talking about?" Pyrrha lifted her hand and asked.
"Frosch? No too much like froth Esdeath gave birth last night and I am ill prepared for her. Winter no, no already enough winters in this place"
Murmurs echoed loudly and the first to rise was Ruby, "Really!?" her silvers sparkled as brightly as the stars, "can we see her!?" always loud that one.
"Maybe later." He waved Ruby away, "has anyone got any ideas." He looked up, scanned the crowd and sighed when no one lifted theirs. Until one did, slowly Weiss lifted her hand, her eyes a blend of reluctance and confidence. "Weiss, I'm guessing your idea's starting with a W?"
"Winnabell sir."
Parc froze, an apt expression considering who his mind was having to deal with. "Winn abell" he mouthed and Weiss puffed her chest proudly. "I'm naming a baby from the modern day. And you want o call her, Winnabell she's sixteen hours old, not eighty years."
Weiss' confidence shattered and her cheeks flared red with the low laughter filling the class.
"Really Weiss? Winnabell?" Yang sighed.
"It's a cute na." Weiss retorted, sternly standing her ground.
"What? For a dolly?"
"No." Weiss' voice cracked revealing more about herself than she was intending to.
Raising her hand, Yang blurted, "Windigo. Badass, deals with ice, and sounds like Wendy, perfect hey?"
Yet again, Parc paused, his mind clicking like the stuck machinations of a broken watch. "Do you even know what a wendigo is?" Parc strained.
"A badass na." Yang laughed back.
"A wendigo is a mythological monster ford through starving people eating eachother. It is a monster created through cannibalism. I am not calling my daughter a monstrous cannibal."
"Eh," Yang shrugged, "still a badass na and you can't tell otherwise."
Parc rolled his eyes, exasperated with these girls, "anyone else want to give a stupid suggestion?" Silence reigned. "Tsk, here I thought you'd all be of use for once."
"Sir," his gaze rolled onto Pyrrha and widened. A small tinkling of hope rose inside him. Perhaps she, of all of them, would give him a halfway decent answer.
"Pyrrha! Please, go right ahead." Internally he was chanting, 'please be good, please be good and not stupid.'
"Khione. It is a na derived from one of my ancestors, while it might seem innapropriate for to suggest. Khione, at least within my family, harbours connotations of the cold as well as beauty and strength. Would this fit your criteria?" Even while seeming ever concious of Parc's re existance, she was still willing to open herself for such a small thing.
"That's actually really good," He bead an quickly scratched it down, "at least one of you has a decent idea. Well done Pyrrha," within monts Parc's hand shot into his pocket and pulled out a small golden token that he hurled through the air towards her. It spun and just before it was about to hit her forehead, Pyrrha shot her hand up and caught it, starring at the small golden chunk unsure of what to think.
At that mont all eyes spun and latched onto that small, seemingly priceless chunk of tal with shimring eyes.
"Bellany!" soone shouted.
"Moira!" another bellowed above the forr.
"Tiffany!" a girl cried.
"Sparky!" Parc swiftly filtered Nora from his list of 'smart' students. Not that she was in that list to begin with.
"Nia!"
"Marriah!"
On and on the class called, one after the other with their ideas and personal favourites. All just vying for the price of a thousand lien tied up in a small piece of gold.
"I swear all of you are idiots." Parc sighed and scanned the class once more and fell to Blake, her bow jerking and cheek twitching at every horrible word that escaped her classmates lips.
"Blake!" Parc shouted out silencing the rabble, "do you have any ideas?" he asked hopeful.
The secretive faunus frowned then bobbed her head to the side as if in contemplation. "Two actually, Freya, it's nad after a goddess of an old pre war religion and has to do with most things feminine, but I thought the associations with war would more than likely fit considering who her mother is." While Esdeath hadn't shown up much during the lessons, whenever she did it was a day when Cardin would turn into an ice statue. "The other is Elsa. It cos from a story, the Ice Queen, and is the na of the very Ice Queen the story follows. I think those should fit your criteria."
"They do," Parc smiled and Blake quickly turned away knowing full well if she focused on it that she'd start being unable to not sll his scent assaulting her.
Once more scratching down Blake's idea's he huffed and bobbed his head. Behind him he heard Glynda's heels clicking irately as she awaited the lesson to start proper and not waste ti the students could be using to learn.
"Anyways, I guess I should start the lesson before Glynda decides to commit the murder on . Who wants to go first?"
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