#//I hope you don't mind that I used this as a huge developmental piece!!!

[curtainedknives]

//Someone drops by and leaves a baby in your room, on your pillow. What do you do? You’ve wasted too much time thinking. Now it’s crying and wailing and bawling and screeching. What do you do? If you wasted even more time thinking, too bad, it’s puking all over your sheets now, and while it’s at it, it poops and pees and it overflows from the diaper. What do you do? [sorry, have a random ask, please feel free to ignore this, it's cool :')]

                                      An Abandoned Baby

This was possibly one of the greatest conundrums The East Wind had ever needed to face.

Ignoring for the moment who would have snuck into his apartment to leave a living breathing infant in his home, he had to deal with the real problem here and that was the living breathing infant in home. It had started crying…well if you could call it that… It sounded more like the sound one would make burning in hellfire while the devil devoured your innards for breakfast - And wonderful, if things could get any worse it was now spilling it’s insides from every orifice.  

Aish.  

Salim had never been a fan of children…

Brows furrowing in disgust, Salim already had his phone dialling the only person in the world he imagined would have any idea of how to deal with a baby.  

“It’s an emergency. Someone broke into my apartment”, he left it at that and then hung up after which he moved tentatively over to the child and with equally tentative fingers, began the surgical removal of it from it’s garments. Salim decided he would burn the bed covers later.  

—-

Not even 20 minutes had passed when the door slammed open and a frightfully tall, dark and stern-jawed man clambered through, calling out for his comrade:

“!! Where are y-“, he had not need to finish his question when a startling, head splitting scream came from the bathroom – that would be his next destination. Armed, he dashed forward, rounding the corner he shoved open the door and aimed his gun at the intruder. 

—- 

Salim blinked a few times, unfazed it seemed, to be staring down the barrel of his friend’s gun, the guest’s eyes lowered with confusion down to the crying and wailing naked bundle in Salim’s hands – it was dripping wet and being held upside down.  

“What is th-“

“Don’t you know what a baby is?”

“Yes of course- i know it’s a baby - but why is it-“

“ , hold it for me”

The conversation was spoken amidst screeching but that didn’t stop Salim stuffing the bundle of limbs into his friend’s arms. , the man in question looked on with horror as the baby decided to give the new person a chance and watched him with wide eyes, shock would hold first, soon followed by finally reaching for a towel and pulling it tightly around it, rubbing it’s short hair dry as he moved into the living room.  

returned shortly, in a new shirt, one not soaked through and with a bundle of bed sheets he immediately dropped into the bin before turning back to hopefully and finally giving some answers, but all it seemed he would be given was a tense silence. The baby had quietened, seeming to prefer the guest’s arms despite one being made of cold metal and yet here it was, already dozing off. finally went to speak but Salim spoke first.  

“I definitely made the right decision to call you out of everyone… It’s already shut up, being in your arms”, Salim’s expression was inquiring though mostly relieved and for the first time since he had come home, he could relax and he finally loosened his shoulders.

—-

They’d arrived at the bookstore in the evening after having dropped into a local convenience store to grab what had suggested they get for the sake of the baby; clothes, baby formula etc, the store of course was locked up and empty. They moved through into the back half of the building: A T L U S>’s home.  

The smell of a familiar incense still filled the room, the haziness a comfort for Salim and all his fellow colleagues, their own homes / apartments mostly temporary and scarce in home amenities, but here…. in the Arabesque style that his team leader beside him preferred, they all felt welcomed - a home. It was just a shame that today they had a baby to worry about and the stern man had already advised Salim to put the kettle on before they both reclined into the excessively overfilled pillow mounds on the floor, child in hand. They lay there quietly, the whisper of water becoming hot their only source of sound other than the steady communal breathing, it was fairly peaceful until there was a dull click noise indicating that the water had boiled.  

The team leader lifted himself up, lowering the baby into Salim’s hands before heading to the kitchen to make up some baby milk from their recently purchased formula. Malachite orbs watched his leader and friend slip out of sight as he smiled to himself, he hadn’t been wrong when he had opted for for help – Salim had banked on the fact that having a younger brother would have taught his friend how to take care of infants and it seemed he had been right. 

A subtle movement from his chest made brightened orbs move down, catching sight again of the reason he was here at all. Who was this child? Where did he come from? What do they do with him? A myriad of thoughts thundered through his mind at this late hour and it seemed he wasn’t the only one it seemed, when a deep voice broke the silence:

“We will need to give him in to an orphanage, I’ve requested Rauf to look into one for us”

The much taller man joined Salim in the pillows once again, a jug with water and a submerged bottle in hand, a low scented candle light illuminated them in a rather intimate setting, their preferred kind of lighting. sat up a little, cradling the child awkwardly. 

“Is it alright to use names? What if it’s bugged?”

“The Child?”, he scoffed, “I ran a quick scan while making the milk - as if I would let a bug come into my home Salim - you give me far too little credit.”

Sheepish, the agent inclined his head in defeat; the man in front of him was considered as good as the veterans - of course he would know what he was doing, but it still begged the question… Why was there a child in his home? His thoughts were interrupted once again when quietly took the baby from him and slowly put the bottle into it’s mouth, cradling him gently. 

A smirk tugged at Salim’s lips - ignoring for a moment the oddness of the situation, it was a funny image - the groups team leader had always joked about how he was in charge of a group of children and yet here he was with an actual child. The smirk dissolved into a low, quiet chuckle and he had already lifted his phone to video the entire experience, likely to show his comrades, the attempt was silenced when a swift kick had the electronic device flying across the stone floor. 

“Don’t even dare, I’ll wring your neck”

Diffident, the younger of the two backed away in his seat apologetically, laughing a little.

“Sorry Sorry… But, Malik did you know…”

The silence rang on for a while and it was only after the man in question glanced over finally that Salim continued speaking. 

“You make a fitting looking father”

Eyes widened in horror, a pure look of shock standing on the inset jaw for quite some time before, another kick would come - lacking power but still enough to emphasise his displeasure - though Salim only let out a pained laugh as he gripped his comrade’s foot playfully;

“You’re just lucky I didn’t shoot you in your apartment”