Ficlet: Family Portrait (Empires, Tom/Sean, 2500 words, Mature)

[rsadelle]

Summary: No one's quite sure where Tom and Sean got the baby, and they're not telling. But now they cart around the baby and a diaper bag in addition to guitars and American Apparel hoodies, tour plans include figuring out the babysitting, and Sean's newest song includes a reference to the softness of a baby's skull.

Notes: This started life as a tiny snippet for schuyler on a bad day, and then I kept writing bits and pieces of it over time. This story is mostly a lot of excuses to have Sean holding a baby.

Story on AO3


No one's quite sure where Tom and Sean got the baby, and they're not telling. But now they cart around the baby and a diaper bag in addition to guitars and American Apparel hoodies, tour plans include figuring out the babysitting, and Sean's newest song includes a reference to the softness of a baby's skull.

At a Steger family backyard barbecue, Tom's fingers fidget like he wants a cigarette - he's trying to quit, for the baby - and he watches Sean across the yard swinging the baby up and down again while she laughs the laugh that she's young enough is still a new developmental stage.

"Only Sean," Ryan says, "would name a kid Eurydice."

"Well he wasn't going to name her Orpheus." Tom smiles across the yard at Sean and the baby.

Sean grins back at him and settles Eurydice on his hip. By the time he makes it across the yard, he has a beer in his other hand, and he keeps touching the cold bottle against her hand to make her shriek and then reach for it when he takes it away.

"Hey, baby." Tom takes Eurydice from Sean and holds her close to his chest. "You're my best girl."

Sean touches his beer bottle to her hand. "Mine too," he says while she shrieks and grabs at the bottle. Sean pulls it out of her reach and presses it to the back of Tom's neck.

Tom swears - they haven't done very well with giving up the language around the baby - and flinches away. "You bastard. That's fucking cold."

Sean grins at him and brushes his lips across the same patch of skin.

*

Tom has to work an early shift in the morning, so he's in bed while Sean's getting Eurydice to sleep. Or trying to. Despite Sean's footsteps back and forth across the floor and Sean's voice singing, Eurydice keeps crying.

Tom gets up and goes out to the living room.

"Sorry," Sean mutters.

Tom shrugs. "It's okay." He takes Eurydice from him. "Hey, baby. Are you making Sean crazy?"

Eurydice continues to fuss for another moment, but Tom keeps crooning at her and she settles after a minute. After she's asleep, he walks her down the hall and puts her down in her crib.

"Our kid likes you better," Sean says when Tom pulls the door mostly shut. He's leaning against the wall on the other side of the hall and he looks tired.

Tom puts his arms around Sean, leans them both into the wall. "You'll be her favorite again soon enough." He kisses Sean, slow and soft. "Come to bed."

Sean nods, and does.

*

Sometimes parenthood seems like one long stretch of trying to get Eurydice to sleep. Tonight they're trying music again, because it usually works. They're sitting on either end of the couch, facing each other, Eurydice in Sean's arms and a guitar in Tom's. Tom's not paying too much attention to what they're playing. Sean's singing, and he's just following along.

He doesn't realize what he's playing, figuring out the melody from Sean's voice as he goes, until Sean sings, "we would sputter out."

Tom glares at him but keeps playing. Eurydice stops crying by the time Sean's last "sputter" dies out.

Sean goes to put Eurydice to bed. Tom keeps playing, not that, but other things as they come to him. He starts paying attention again when Sean comes back and finds himself strumming the melody to "Classifieds." He makes a face at Sean.

Sean pushes him down the couch so there's room for him between Tom and the arm of the couch. As soon as he's settled, he puts his arms around Tom, his hands resting between Tom's body and the guitar.

"If it makes you feel better, I'll call Bill and tell him to try singing 'Spit the Dark' to Genevieve when she won't sleep."

Tom smiles, but swears at him.

Sean just laughs and kisses Tom's neck.

*

Tom walks the boundaries of the living room with Eurydice while Sean gives Mike and Ryan the rundown about her bedtime and what to feed her if she gets hungry.

"We'll be fine," Mike says. "I have babysat before."

Sean chuckles and meets Tom at the edges of the room. "Alright, baby." Tom's pretty sure he's talking to Eurydice. "Time for us to go."

Tom looks down at Eurydice, at her tiny head and the soft hair that covers it. "We don't have to go."

"Yes, we do." Sean slips his hands between Tom and Eurydice. "Say goodbye."

Tom bends his head enough to kiss the top of Eurydice's head. "Bye, baby. We'll be back soon." He lets go when Sean pulls her away.
Sean drops his own kiss on Eurydice's cheek and hands her over to Ryan, then practically pushes Tom out the door. He keeps his hand on Tom's back all the way down the stairs. "She'll be fine. You'll be fine."

He's mostly right. It takes a while, once they get there, but Tom settles back into the rhythm of hanging out at a party, which is so very different from the rhythms of a show or photography or taking care of Eurydice.

Still, he ends up trading parenting stories with Bill and Christine and looking at pictures on their phones. Courtney does good work.

Tom pulls out his phone to show them Eurydice. She's on the background of his phone, smiling broadly with jam smeared all over both hands and her face.

Sean groans. "Don't show them that one." He brings something up on his phone and leans in to show Bill and Christine. It's one of Tom's photos, from when he was taking pictures of Eurydice while playing with settings on his camera. It's sepia-toned, Sean with Eurydice, laughing and reaching down toward the camera, on his lap. The only part of Sean in focus is his arm around Eurydice's stomach, keeping her from tumbling off his lap. Tom didn't know Sean had it on his phone.

"They're both great expressions of her spirit," Bill says. "Did you take them?"

"He did," Sean says. "Even the grandparents don't take as many pictures of her as Tom does." He puts his hand on Tom's back.

Sean touches him all the time, but this feels different somehow. Tom looks up, looks around, and Carden's there, across the room. Their eyes meet for a long, long moment. Tom looks away first, when Sean slides his arm all the way around his waist and flips to another of Tom's photos.

Carden stays on the other side of the room, Sean stays right by Tom, and Tom drinks enough that he's stumbling on his way up the stairs when they get home. He drops his coat on the floor below the hook it's supposed to go on and kicks his shoes off next to it. He can hear Sean's coat slither onto his. One of them will be bitching about it later, but right now, he doesn't care.

Tom sort of waves at Mike and Ryan on his way to Eurydice. She's sleeping. She's tiny and precious and beautiful. Tom hangs on to the edge of her crib and watches her breathe.

The voices from the living room go silent, and then Sean's there, leaning against Tom's back.

"See," he murmurs against Tom's neck. "She's fine."

"She's perfect," Tom says, fierce but quiet enough not to wake her.

"Yeah," Sean says. "Yeah." He kisses Tom's neck and lets go of him. "Go to bed. I'll be there in a minute."

Tom runs the back of his finger down Eurydice's cheek first.

He's in bed, not asleep but tucked in, head on his pillow, when Sean comes in a few minutes later. He keeps his eyes open, watching, while Sean strips and climbs into bed with him.

"I'd travel to the Underworld for her." Sean plays with Tom's hands, twining their fingers together and stroking over them. Eurydice does the same thing. "For both of you."

"That story doesn't end happily," Tom reminds him. "No looking back."

"No," Sean says. "No looking back."

*

They shouldn't be doing this. Eurydice's been asleep long enough that she's going to wake up any minute now. They are doing it, though, and that means they have to be quiet. Tom's better at it. Sean tends to be a screamer, especially when it's good.

This is good.

At the end, when he can tell Sean's getting close, Tom puts one hand on his cock and one over his mouth. He can feel the sounds he can't hear when Sean comes.

They're just separating and lying down when Eurydice starts to cry.

Sean half sits up with a groan. Tom pushes him back with a hand on his shoulder. "You're covered in come. I'll go." Tom throws on a pair of sweats and walks across the hall to get Eurydice. "Hi, baby." He picks her up out of the crib and takes her to the kitchen. "Okay, I've got you."

Sean comes in and takes Eurydice from Tom so he can use both hands to get her a bottle. Sean's hair is a mess, his shirt is wrinkled like it came off the floor, and there's sweat shining on his forehead, but he has Eurydice in his arms and Tom's fingers itch for his camera.

*

Tom wakes up. Something's wrong. It takes him only a moment to realize that Eurydice's crying, and then he squeezes his eyes shut again.

Sean hits him in the arm. "Come on. It's your turn."

"I'll blow you in the morning if you do it," Tom mumbles. He waits for a moment.

Sean makes a disgruntled noise, but gets up. Tom can hear the squeak of the doors, the murmur of Sean's voice, sounds from the kitchen. Eurydice stops crying, and he slips back into a doze.

The door squeaks again, and Tom squints his eyes open to see Sean coming back in with Eurydice. He sits down next to Tom, one arm holding Eurydice to his chest, the other holding the bottle for her.

Tom sits up a little and pulls the blankets up over Sean's legs. "Hey, baby." Tom brushes his fingers over the bottom of Eurydice's feet. "Baby, baby," he murmurs. "Love you, love you."

Sean nudges him with his knee. "What about me?"

Tom pushes up high enough to kiss Sean's shoulder. "Love you too."

*

There's art all over their walls, crowding each other out, but there's one wall that has just three black frames that always hold Tom's photos. Tom uses the time while Sean's at the park with Eurydice to change them out again.

When he gets home, Sean walks over to look at the photos without putting Eurydice down or giving her to Tom, even though she has to be heavy in the sling.

This set is all black and white, and all Eurydice. In the first one, she's lying on her stomach on a blanket, smiling at the camera. In the second one, Sean's holding her up, both of them smiling at the camera with their cheeks pressed together. The third is one he had to stand on a chair to get: Eurydice sleeping on her back in her crib, looking peaceful and babysoft.

Sean turns away from the pictures and comes over to Tom. "They're gorgeous." He kisses Tom, leaving enough space between them for Eurydice. "You're not in any of them."

Tom unwinds the sling from around Sean so he can take Eurydice from Sean. "Perils of being the photographer." He leans into the arm Sean puts around him.

"You're not the only photographer we know."

Tom shrugs. It doesn't matter. He's there in the pictures, too. No one else could take those photos of Sean and Eurydice.

Sean's fingers rub through Tom's hair. "Will you smile for a family portrait if we have someone take one?"

Tom makes a face at him.

Sean keeps looking at him. "I want one."

Tom looks down at Eurydice, over at Sean, across the room at the pictures that don't show his face. "Yeah, if you want one."

Sean brushes his thumb over Eurydice's cheek. "I do."

*

When Eurydice's five, they leave her with Tom's parents while they go on tour. She's in kindergarten; it seems like the thing to do.

They have one day off where they're within a day's driving distance. Tom and Sean send the rest of the band on to the next date while they spend money they don't have to rent a car and drive through the night.

Eurydice must see them out the window; she runs out to meet them, laughing and grabbing for them. Tom drove the last leg, so Sean gets her first, scooping her up and kissing her, his arms tight around her. Tom's too impatient to wait his turn; he puts his arms around both of them and kisses her cheek.

"Hi, baby."

Eurydice throws herself from Sean's arms to Tom's. "You came home."

"Yeah." Tom puts his cheek to hers. "Yeah, we missed you."

Tom's mom comes out of the house smiling and carrying Eurydice's backpack and the stuffed hippopotamus Ryan gave Eurydice before they left on tour.

Sean takes the backpack and hippo while Tom's mom kisses both Tom and Eurydice's cheeks.

"We'll bring her back tomorrow," Tom says. He manages half a hug without letting go of Eurydice.

Sean also deals with transferring the car seat from Tom's mom's car to the rental, so Tom gets to listen to Eurydice talk about kindergarten. She's so much older, even just a few weeks since they last saw her.

They tire her - and themselves - out by spending most of the day at the park. There are other kids around, but Eurydice keeps coming back to them. She insists Sean push her on the swings and makes Tom go across the monkey bars with her.

Tom takes pictures, enough that they can look at them later, after they have to leave, but not so many that he misses out on what it's like to lie on the grass and have Eurydice lie next to him, looking up at the clouds while Sean gets them sandwiches from the deli down the block.

Eurydice refuses to go to her own room when it's time for bed, and she threatens to throw a tantrum. They both know they're not supposed to let her get her own way quite so easily, but Tom doesn't have the heart to let her out of his sight anyway, and Sean doesn't say anything when Tom puts her in the center of their bed instead of her own.

Tom thought maybe they could take advantage of the time home to fuck, but kissing Sean over their daughter's head and watching her sleep is even better.

"Next time," Sean whispers, "she's going with us."

"Yes." Tom leans over Eurydice so he can reach Sean's mouth. "We're not leaving her again," he says against it, half talking and half kissing.

Comments

[inlovewithnight.livejournal.com]

So sweet. ♥

[rsadelle]

♥ Thank you!

[mayqueen517.livejournal.com]

This was the most perfect thing to see after coming home from a shit day at work.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

[rsadelle]

♥ I'm so glad!

[amisophe.livejournal.com]

seriously, how did you make it believable that Empires would be able to take care of a baby? THE SOFTNESS OF A BABY'S SKULL ♥

[rsadelle]

♥ Sean with a baby! There should be more of this sort of thing.