Gay-ege for Eddie

XXII

  "We are calling her Izzy,"Grant argued, whisper-shouting as the adorable baby that Eddie currently cradled in his arms oh-so-delicately had only just fallen asleep after nearly half an hour of fussing her tiny head off.
  Nia, looking even more tired than the obviously exhausted Grant- as is the physical toll of pushing a tiny human out of ones body- whisper-shouted back, "If she has a nickname it'll be Ella or Elly! It's cuter! Izzy is that crazy girl from Total Drama Island and I do not want our baby to see reruns of that show and think she's the same because they share a name and then start acting like her! And why does she need a nickname anyways, Izella is perfectly fine so unless you were lying when you said that you like it, shush your mouth,"
  They had been somewhat bickering back and forth like this since Gaege and Eddie arrived, the pair sharing a look each time their friends began lightly arguing again. Nia had informed them before their arrival that it was honestly harmless, it was a slightly real discussion but they realized that if they turned it into a debate whenever they got too tired that it helped to keep them awake. Oh, the joys of being a new parent! Gaege thought that phrase multiple times since they had stepped into the house.
  Eddie and Gaege were visiting the happy little family for the next four days, having pre-recorded and edited a video each so that they could post while here. They'd driven the whole way, well, Eddie drove and Gaege clutched Knife to his chest with his seat reclined almost all the way back as he napped, and only checked into their hotel long enough to throw their bags into their cozy room before getting back into the car to get to Grant and Nia's home.
  The home was actually the one-bedroom (baby crib right next to the bed, of course) guest house, complete with kitchenette of course, in the backyard of Nia's parents' rather nice home. The new parents had swapped from their apartment to this only a week or so before the birth, after Nia's mom finally convinced them to do so with the promise that she would help take care of the baby as often as they wanted since it would be easy to do so if they lived just across the yard. Eddie commented that he would go crazy if his mom could just walk across the yard into his home whenever she wanted too.
  Alas, tonight Nia's parents were at a fancy-pants function that some of her dad's fancy-pants golf buddies and their wives were putting on over an hour away. The exhaustion was plain on their faces, and the baby so sweet and cute as she slept in his arms that Eddie couldn't help but blurt out, "Hey, why don't Gaege and I stay here and take care of her for a little while? You guys have been doing your little debate thing off and on the whole time we've been here, y'all really need to just go get some sleep. Go to Nia's old bedroom in the house so that Z here doesn't wake you up with her cries once she wakes up,"
  "Are you sure? We wouldn't wanna bother y-" Nia is cut off by her baby daddy with a swift "Yeah babe don't worry, they're sure. Or he wouldn't have offered it, now let's go before I fall asleep here sitting again," his words quickly followed by him standing up and grabbing her hand to lead her out of the guest house and towards the main one.
"How much you wanna bet she has a bunch of old stuffed animals or those fancy glass dolls in there that'll freak Grant out?" Gaege grinned from the couch he had been left on. Eddie, snug in the armchair, smiled softly at the swaddled warmth he held to his chest.
  His voice was softer than Gaege's, who had seemed to forget that only Nia and Grant had left, not the baby. "I'll bet fifteen, and five more if it's a combination of dolls and stuffed animals." Their eyes met and they giggled as quietly as they could manage. Gaege got up and walked the four steps to stand in front of Eddie. Pressing a chaste kiss to his lips he pulled back and squatted on the ground so that he could see them both again. He ran his fingertips over the light dusting of dark hair that covered Izella's delicate head. Looking into Eddie's eyes he asked, "Do you think we could do this? Be parents?"
"Together?" Eddie joked with a smirk.
"You are so lucky you're holding a tiny human or I would be shoving you right now,"
  "Into a wall to kiss me up against? No bedroom talk in front of the baby, you should no better," he teased with a chuckle. Gaege gave him a pointed look, one Eddie knew too well from experience to mean shut up right now or no fun time later, so he continued on. "To answer your question, yes, I do think we could do this. Look at us right now! Yeah she's asleep but we could handle it, and we'd have Nia and Grant like we got them and we'd have my mom and sister and a bunch of other family near us to help too. I wanna have kids , you know that, and having them with you would be even better baby."
  "That was a darn mouthful,"
  "Darn? And is that all you have to say to my passionate speech? Rude,"
  "No cursing in front of the baby! Their brain is empty is absorbs everything I don't know how early is too early so I'm taking no darn chances!"
  "You're so cute," Eddie smiles so tenderly at him that his heart aches the same way it did at the end of watching The Notebook.
  "I wanna be a dad along with you. I never really thought about having kids but with you something just clicked and I wanna have a family with you. One that isn't just us and our cats. Honestly I might blame it on that one time in the restaurant bathroom when we were joking about trying to get pregnant. But also because I love you obviously. I think we can do it too. Not for awhile, thought, we've got years and years and years for that. No body clock ticking here when we can just adopt amirite,"
Eddie, who had been diligently listening and nodding and had an overall look of joy softly written onto his face, suddenly gave a wicked grin at the end of Gaege's last sentence"Doesn't hurt to keep trying, though,"
  Gaege flicked his lovers forehead, "Yeah, doesn't hurt."
  Eddie's phone began buzzing with the notification of a text from Grant.
     Passed out at first but now I can't sleep after waking up n looking around the room :( dude why do nice childhood bedrooms always have shelves with creepy demonic dolls and ancient ass teddy bears
  Eddie triumphantly showed the message to Gaege, the smug son of a bitch. "Ha! You owe me twenty!"
  Gaege crossed his arms, "Well I'm not gonna pay up cause you still owe me thirty for breaking my headphones,"
  "Da- darn, I forgot about that," Eddie caught himself lowered his voice once again from its soft level back down to a total whisper as Izella began to rapidly stir in his arms as she started waking up, most likely about to burst into tears for food since Eddie didn't think she had dirtied her diaper yet. Another text buzzed in as Eddie instructed Gaege to go get a bottle ready and to make sure to follow the instructions Nia mentioned she leaves on the fridge for her mom.
  Gently rocking the arm cradling her in an attempt to get Izella to stay asleep, or at least quiet, just a little longer he used the other hand to read the new text from Grant.
      btw i liked when you called Izella Z earlier that'll be a good nickname for when she learns how to talk buuut don't tell Nia yet lol I don't think she heard and if she likes it too that means RIP to our stay-awake-debate and I can't lose that until we figure out a better schedule
  Eddie silently did a little fist pump into the air with his phone hand, he had won two things all within the about an hour since Grant and Nia walked out.
  Gaege walked back over from the kitchen area, "This bottle nipple thing is so weird, have you looked at it yet?"

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a/n hope you enjoyed sorry it took me for fucking ever to write i got busy and then i was in a dialogue hell like i could not write dialogue so sorry there isn't a lot of it and what is there isn't very good also i said an hour at the end there time isn't real anyways so if it wouldn't match up irl then oh well this is a fic n then i was gonna have izella wake up but i decided i didn't wanna detail about a baby fussing lol also ahhh new ~spicy~ chapter tomorrow bu the afternoon i'm going to bed rn lmao also y'all i got a job offer AND i've been keeping up with my school work pretty well i'm so excited i hope you all have good luck soon too!