T'rell shakes off sleep with an effort, reorienting himself with the air of someone who hadn't really meant to fall asleep where and when he did. "Wha- ?" He rubs his face with his hands, sitting up, and his question is sleep-slurred. "How long was I out?"

Kaeryn gentle jiggles the infant in her arms as she paces around the room, a soft 'hic' coming from the babe's mouth sounding now and then. "A good many candlemarks, at least 3 or 4," she replies with a small grin and a shrug of her shoulders. "I let you sleep because I thought you needed it."

"I guess I did," T'rell is forced to conclude, pushing lengthening silver bangs away from his tanned, pillow-creased countenance. "That and a haircut." His hair, never quite tame, is having one of its more brilliant moments and has already gotten back into his eyes again.

'Hic' Brencia hiccups again, followed by Kae rubbing a gentle hand up and down the infant's back, "If you'd like, I could give it a little trim for you. I do cut my own hair, you know." Mother and daughter move to the bed and sit on the edge, where Kae continues to sooth her hiccupping daughter.

T'rell yawns as he pushes his hair out of his face again. "Give it a lot of a trim, that way it lasts longer," he replies as he recovers. A smile grows as he regards Brencia. "You know, I think she's growing." As always, he's eminently capable of stating the obvious even in his sleep.

"We'll see what we can do with it as soon as this little darling stops 'hic-ing' and settles down to sleep," Kae promises, reaching over a hand to brush one of those silvery locks away from his forehead and planting a kiss on his nose. "She's been doing this for the past candlemark or so, but hopefully soon.."

T'rell tugs his rumpled shirt back into place, then catches one of Kaeryn's hands to give it a kiss. "A candlemark? Now that I'm back with the world," he jokes, pausing for a brief moment; the abrupt focus on nothing in particular usually means that he's checking in with his copilot. Without a real break in the sentence, he continues on, "I can take her for a while." He reaches a work-roughened hand over to rub Kaeryn's shoulder.

Gently passing their daughter over into T'rell's arms, Kae gives him an appreciative smile and a wink, "They've been slowing at least, and not really even phasing her anymore, so hopefully she will sleep again soon. Sleeping as peacefully as I've ever seen her, and suddenly, she was wide awake and hiccupping." Touching a soft hand to T'rell's cheek first, then Bren's, she smiles again, "Of course, everything always seems to be a little better for her when she's in her daddy's arms, you know."

"It's that old 'grass is greener' thing," the dragonrider pulls out an old beastholding cliche. "She gets you most of the time." Still, he settles the girl tenderly in his arms, rising from the bed to carry her around the carpeted floor. Although the change of venue causes Brencia to regard her situation in a new light, she almost immediately pops a loud hiccup and manages to look so dissatisfied that it makes T'rell grin.

Kaeryn pushes herself further onto the bed so that she can lean against the pillows piled near the headboard, tucking her feet up near her and pulling one of the overstuffed pillows into her lap. "I suppose, but then again, *I* always feel better in your arms as well, so..."

T'rell chuckles softly as he pats Brencia lightly on the back, spurring another hiccup. "I don't think it's quite the same for her," he nods down at the rather smaller version of Kaeryn and himself who's riding around with him at the moment. "Hey," he whispers to the baby, "hold your breath." To illustrate, he takes a deep breath and holds it, his cheeks bulging out comically.

"You don't think it's because she loves you, and feels safe, warm, and happy in your arms?" Kae points out a few of the reasons why *she* feels better in his arms, giving him a mischevious little smile, which turns into laughter as he attempts to teach the little one how to hold her breath. "I'm not sure she's quite ready for that yet, dear."

"Sure she is," T'rell lets out his breath to insist. "C'mon, Brenci," he illustrates again a few times. He certainly succeeds in fascinating the girl, who starts to giggle.

Kae giggles as well, shaking her head in amusement as she watches the pair. "You know, you're going to make her grow up too fast, and then you're going to wonder what happened to the times that she was tiny like this," a moment of philosophical understanding touches her, and floats away just as quickly.

"Nah. This is what being little's all about, ain't that right?" Another giggle, split down the middle with a loud hiccup, is Brencia's confirmation of her father's statement, and he grins before yet again trying to get her to copy him holding his breath.

"Either that, or it's to be carried around, fed, bathed, and taken care of all while just laying back and enjoying life," Kae counters him lightly as she plumps the pillow in her lap and rests it on the bed beside her once again. "Either way, it sounds pretty nice to me. Doubting that I learned to hold my breath *that* young, though."

The best Brencia does is to puff out her cheeks in a laughing smile rather than with air, and T'rell grins back at Kaeryn on the bed. "We'll keep working on it. She'll need good breath support if she's gonna be a harper, you know," he teases as he bounces the girl in his arms -- she's quite awake now, of course.

"Or a dolphineer," Kae adds with a shrug of her shoulders as she pushes herself from the bed and walks across the room so she can wrap her arms around T'rell's waist from behind. "Haven't heard her hiccup in a few minutes now, maybe they're gone, you think? Not that she'll sleep *now* of course."

T'rell gives Kaeryn a guilty look over his shoulder. "You don't mind that she's awake, right?" Brencia, delighted with her mother's face within reach of her dad's shoulder, cracks a big grin and reaches a chubby hand out.

"Not as long as you're holding her," Kae teases, leaning over to plant a kiss on T'rell's cheek and grabs Bren's tiny fist in the process. "I was hoping to have a chance to curl up with you while you were sleeping, you know, family nap time, but she didn't like that idea all that much."

"Looking for attention, eh?" T'rell asks the infant, his tone laughing. "Well, how 'bout you and I look at those new formations, eh?" Ooh, what fun. "If you're tired, Kaeryn, go ahead and sleep. We'll be okay for a while." He spares a hand to brush a few long, golden strands back from the woman's face, warmly studying her eyes and expression for a moment. "And then a haircut." He grins, then, as Brencia makes a grab and pulls his short beard. "And maybe a shave."

"It wasn't the *sleep* that I wanted," Kae replies with a wink as she reaches up to touch the beard the covers his chin and gives it a playful tug, like daughter like mother... "You know, Bren and I might have trouble recognizing you if you get rid of it, but it would be interesting to see what you look like when your entire face is visible."

T'rell grimaces and gently removes Brencia's iron grip from the hairs of his beard. "You've seen me without it," he reminds Kaeryn. "Okay, so it's been a while," he admits.

"Not in almost longer than I can remember," Kae replies with a grin as she watches the struggle between father and daughter for the hair to stay attatched to his chin. "I must say I like it though, it's actually quite handsome," she reaches her hand to the beard again, but this time to run her fingers across it, tracing his jawline with her finger.

T'rell finally manages to free himself from the baby's giggling clutches, having to fend off her hands again as she's determined that it's her new game. "I think it's a little dangerous right now. Maybe I can grow it again when she's a little older..."

"By then, we'll probably both be accustomed to you have smooth cheeks and won't want the beard back," Kae points out as she retreats from the pair, slipping down into her desk chair and flips open a book, apparently preparing to try to get a little work done, though not actually looking at the pages.

T'rell shrugs, ducking another grab by Brencia by bouncing her in his arms. "Eh, I'm tired of it anyway. Ista's too hot for extra hair," he adds.

Kaeryn reaches up and flips her long curls back over her shoulder and eyes him thoughtfully, trying not to laugh, "You're telling me?" Her blue gaze shifts to the infant in T'rell's arms, the one that's wide awake, and she just shakes her head, "Maybe she'll at least sleep all night since she hasn't had her nap, you think?"

T'rell's eyebrows raise hopefully. "Wouldn't that be a nice change." He takes the baby over to where his storage chest sits on the floor, picking up a couple of hides from where he dropped them before sacking out. "But I'll wager she'll be asleep in no time once I start telling her about these formations." As Brencia starts to chew on a corner of the writing hides, the dragonrider pulls them away with a shake of his head. "No chewing on important stuff, Bren."

"Have to learn those by tomorrow?" Kae asks softly, picking up a hide from her desk and, once again, barely scanning it before tossing it to the side with disinterest. "Maybe we should find her something she *can* chew on. She's getting teeth, you know, s'why she wants to eat your fingers when they're near."

"Yeah, we'll be drilling on 'em in the afternoon." T'rell's next stop is at Brencia's small collection of toys, where sits on the carpet, setting her down next to him along with a colorful, already well-chewed beanbag. "If we go on the usual schedule, we'll be ready to fly it in one more Fall." A touch of pride colors his tone.

A fresh hide is taken from the small pile on the corner of her desk, and, after dipping her pen in the bottle of ink, Kae begins to write. "Well, perhaps we'll be lucky, and she'll play while we both work?"

Brencia seems to be fascinated with the beanbag again -- today, it's a favorite. Tomorrow, it'll be the dragon again, or the afghan. T'rell crosses bare feet, comfortable on the floor while the infant occupies herself next to him. "Keep saying that and maybe she'll start to believe it," he tells the harper with a grin.

"One can only hope..." Kae mumbles softly before her thoughts become fully focused on the hide before her and whatever it is she is writing upon it.

A last, lingering look at the hard-working harper perhaps reveals something of T'rell's deeper thoughts, the quiet smile only an outward extension of them. For a moment, he watches Kaeryn at work before he turns his attention down to the hides in his hands.

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