Consider: Veth, Recently Married And Super Pregnant, Goes Out Into The Woods And Finds A Teenage Beau

consider: Veth, recently married and super pregnant, goes out into the woods and finds a teenage Beau who just ran away from home. She immediately adopts her. Yeza is unsure of what to do because so far she's only adopted squirrels and kittens, but this is a person. But when Beau's father sends men to bring her back, Yeza's the one who protects her. And Luke grows up with a cool older sister. (This wasn't meant as a prompt, but if you feel inspired, feel free to add onto this :p)

Hmm, yes you could say i had feelings about this au. This got very long, but MAN do i kinda wanna write this fic now, thank you for this beautiful idea-

Veth insists she’s pregnant, not bedridden, and goes out as usual to harvest fresh ingredients

She’s just about ready to start heading back, basket full of stuffs, when she hears some muffled noises and what sounds suspiciously like stifled tears (she remembers the sound of those intimately)

Of course, she seeks out the source

The source turns out to be a bruised and bristling teenage beau, with what looks suspiciously like dried blood on her shirt trying to untangle her sleeve from some thistles

Veth offers to help and take her home for dinner, and it’s getting dark out and the woods aren’t very safe after sunset she says

Beau is, obviously, wary of accepting help, but she’s tired and she’s been walking for days, and it’s a pregnant halfling lady, what would she even do? So she says yes

They walk back together, beau trying very much to answer veth’s cheerful questions with as few syllables as possible

They get to the apothecary

Yeza sees that his wife has upgraded her strays from coyotes and raccoons to human teenagers and tries very hard to be surprised

Then he notices that this particular human teenager has bruises around her neck that look suspiciously hand sized

He and veth share a Look

He goes in the back to ‘grab the healing potions’, while veth gets beau settled at the table and starts preparing dinner

Luke, 2 years old, toddles out and tugs on beau’s leg, because he wants Up! darn it, and it doesn’t matter who’s holding him

Beau freezes, she is not a good influence (as she’s been told many, many times) and she’s never had a meaningful interaction with a child in her life, but veth just glances at them with a smile and says

“Oh, be careful, he does tend to drool,”

And what’s she gonna do, make him cry? So she picks him up, and he tries to use her as a human climbing pole, and by the time dinner’s ready and yeza has returned from ‘grabbing the potions’ (venting his rage) (he does, though, have healing potions, and makes sure beau consumes them all)

Beau has gotten less tense, and maybe fallen in love with the tiny, tiny child a little. a little.

They have dinner, names are exchanged, the brenattos insist that she stay the night because kamordah is so far, and we wouldn’t want you captured by goblins or something horrible like that

And beau, whether she admits it to herself or not, likes these kind halflings and their stupid son with his stupid, cute face

And maybe she’s trying not to cry during dinner because dinner with her parents (when they bother to show up) is never like this, it’s always cold and full of snide comments about everything that’s wrong with her, and the rage boiling up in her throat because why can’t they just let her be-

And veth shows her to the guest room, and tucks her in, and that’s just when she loses it, because she can’t remember ever being tucked in before

And veth just holds this little girl, and quietly vows vengeance on whoever caused this

And when she strolls back into bed with yeza, they just look at each other and mutually agree that they will find the person who has harmed this child and drip acid into their eyes until they are begging for death go through the proper legal procedures to adopt this girl

So beau’s been with the brenattos for a week, maybe a little more, and she’s starting to think that maybe things are going to be okay, that she can stay and learn how to make acid with veth and yeza and babysit luke while they’re away and practice fighting on the bushels of hay in the tillage (she still a fighter, always a fighter) but then,

Then the men show up, three of them. Clearly hired mercenaries, meant to drag her back kicking and screaming. And beau knows that it’s the end,

That these little halflings are nice, but they wouldn’t break the law for her, wouldn’t risk leaving their real son in danger for her,

But then yeza comes storming out of the workshop, vials of acid dangling very, very visibly from his belt, the full picture of righteous indignation at his shop being invaded, at his daughter, being threatened, while veth is out, running to the crownsguard-

They aren’t fond of mercenaries, she knows. So long as beau isn’t clearly being held against her will, she’s old enough that they’ll side with the family they’ve known and bought potions from for years-

So while she’s out, yeza stalls

Beau is standing in the corner, shellshocked, as this tiny halfling man stands straight and immovable, when the mercenaries growl and threaten.(how he loudly, proudly, without the shame and thinly veiled disappointment she’s so, so used to calls her his daughter) How, when one of them, impatient and not willing to risk his gold, reaches for a weapon

How yeza uncaps a vial of acid and launches it at the man’s face, grimly triumphant as the man’s howls of pain echo through the house

Then in comes veth, backed up by a group of crownsguard

It’s clearly self defense- one halfling against a group of mercenaries, attempted kidnappers, even? No question. and the girl isn’t being held against her will, clearly

It’s a bit of a blur, after that

Lots of paperwork, and emotional conversations, but by the end of the night, beau is no longer a lionett but a brenatto, and she has a younger brother now, and veth, and yeza, and a home, instead of an echoing prison

And she grows up in an apothecary with ceilings that are slightly too low, with a troublesome littler brother who asks questions about everything and a mother that kisses her goodnight and a father who asks how her martial training with the crownsguard is going

And when she decides that she’s going to become a monk, even with stupid meditation, and heads out to the local cobalt soul temple, there is a teary send off, full of hugs and kisses and orders that she write us every week, beau, we want to know how you’re doing!