revivalproject | beach break

WHO: Sansa + Baby Stark
WHERE: on the ocean planet!
WHAT: hanging out, mostly
WHEN: 29 July - 3 August
WARNINGS: TBD

Sansa actually likes ocean worlds even if the bright sun works a number on her skin. James, too, is pale but she's knitted him one hat before coming here and has her sewing things so she can knit another. Perhaps it's a little strange to see a woman and a baby under an umbrella on the beach but Sansa is enjoying the warmth and breeze from the ocean even if she cannot go swimming since James is with her.

Her knitting needles are the only sound around her, clicking comfortably, and she's very much lost in what she's doing. James has recently learned how to sit up and he's delighting himself with it, giggling every time he manages to pull himself up only to fall back down again. It's his newest trick, after all, and Sansa cannot believe how much he's grown. He hadn't felt small when she delivered but he had been a wee thing and now he's chubby with bright blue eyes and wisps of red curls starting to grow in.

"You look like your uncles Robb and Rickon, you do," she coos at him. "All Tully red and blue, yes you are. A little slippery fish."

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Steve's gaze snaps up and holds for a second before turning back to James. She doesn't know. She hadn't heard yet. Steve hates to be the one to bring this sort of information to anyone but he has to say something.

"I am sure that all of us here won't mind being his buffer. But. Sansa..." He swallows and doesn't look up. "Bucky's been missing for almost a week, now. His shipmates said he vanished. Which..." Steve has to clear his throat.

"We know what that can mean."

"Oh...oh no. Steve, I'm so sorry," Sansa says, reaching her hand out for him. Her loss is still fresh and still aches some days but she has solace in her son and in her friends. She has solace in...whatever Tony is to her right now. Steve is so desperately in love with Bucky that Sansa had thought of them as a unit, always.

"Perhaps he'll be back. I left and came back once. It can happen, I promise."

He glances up at her with a weak smile but takes her hand gladly. He gives it a soft squeeze and settles James back down before scrubbing his face and finally talking.

"I keep hoping he will. I've lost him so many times. I really thought that maybe this here was the end of it." He exhales and looks up toward the sky. "I want to hope so much. But if I'm wrong..."

His shoulders slump forward just a bit.

"I don't know.

"If you're wrong, you'll put one foot in front of the other for a while," Sansa says. "And it'll be all you can do. Grief will press against your heart and it'll be all you can think of and feel and that will be all right. Still, one foot in front of the other."

She squeezes his hand. "Then it will be easier to go somewhere with a purpose - to see a friend, to have a drink. It'll be more than one foot in front of the other. You'll miss him, you always will, but you'll be able to love him and think of the good things instead of the black thorns around your heart. I don't think he's gone, though. Not truly. Perhaps I'm just being optimistic but...I think he'll be back. He loves you too much."

"Love usually doesn't have much to do with things, here. But I appreciate your optimism. I need to reclaim my own."

He squeezes her hand and raises it to give a kiss to the back in gratitude. "And if he does come back, I trust he will be thrilled to be part of the James bubble. Anything to keep this little one safe." He smiles and bumps his small nose with a finger, watching him giggle. It makes his heart feel light.

"And in the meantime I am your designated babysitter. It definitely helps to have this little guy to distract me. He's so sweet."

"I can use the help. I still have to nurse quite a bit but I can express it for later, too, so he can be with someone else for a little while. I know you don't want to know any of this but there's little shyness in being a nursing mother."

Sansa has had to get over any of her natural inclinations to be shy with her body, anyway, and perhaps it's for the better.

"You're one of the people he likes the best, you know."

Steve just laughs and shakes his head. "Don't worry about me. My ma was a nurse and I lived in a pretty open area. There was no way you didn't see nursing mothers everywhere, growing up. It was cheaper than formula and no one could afford that."

He looks back at James and takes his little hands in his own. He's so precious and so small. Steve can't help but be charmed by everything the baby does. Even blinking.

"I am really thankful that you trust me with him, Sansa. He is amazing. I hope I get to see what he grows up into; with you as his mother, I can only imagine how incredible he'll be."

"I sure hope he is. He's a Prince of Winterfell and I hope...I don't know if he'll be able to come back with me but I really hope that he can. He can be my heir and keep the Stark name strong in the North. We need more Starks in the world."

Sansa is enamored of her child and she doesn't know what she'd do without him. She's glad to have such good friends, though, who love her sweet boy.

"I am glad he has so many fathers here, though. I am blessed."

beach break

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