For a scenario, could we have an RO of your choice introducing a minimart to one of their favorite things? (A hobby, a pet, an experience, anything important enough that they would be excited to share with their little one!)
She couldn't speak. Gabriel was fully aware of that when he picked his daughter up from the cot and carried her into his home office. She was fussy and only seemed to calm that night while he held her. So, he had slipped from bed, exhausted, but gravitating towards his daughter like the North Star.
"You are going to wake the parent who feeds you the most," he whispered to her. "I do not know much about babies, but I do not think this is wise."
She gurgled at him, eyes wide and still struggling to fix on anything for more than a moment.
Settling into his office chair, he curled her close. She seemed content in his hold, happy to be flapping her arms around and gurgling nonsensically up at him. Gabriel smiled. He had thought that he had found his heart years ago when a certain prisoner had caused his hair to turn grey at the temples. He now knew that his heart was here, in his arms.
Reaching into the drawer, he fumbled around for a moment before his fingers curled around a jagged piece of stone. "I want to show you something," he whispered to her. Pulling out the gem, he held it above her. There was no glow left to it, but it was still objectively beautiful. "This," he said, "was my grace."
She cooed at him, kicking her little legs.
"No. You should not be impressed. It was much more impressive when I was your age. Now, it is mostly useless." But he still had it. He hadn't the courage to rid himself of it even though he no longer needed it. His grace, as useless as it was now, was still a part of him.
"I shouldn't give this to you," he told her. "It is jagged and you will hurt yourself. But, one day, when you are old enough, perhaps we could fashion this into something you would like? A necklace? Or a sword. It is your choice." But he did hope for a blade. He longed to teach his daughter the proper technique of protecting others.
She smacked her lips, her eyes going droopy.
"It is yours, though, little star. That way you always have a part of me with you."
He curled his fingers around the rock. An item that had caused him pain, caused the world strife, and an item that in the end, he had overcome. Giving it to his daughter felt like a burden in the beginning. Yet, now, in the dark office, it felt far more symbolic. His pride and joy holding his biggest burden as if it was nothing. Because he had defeated it. For her. And she didn't have to bear his failures.
Gabriel leaned back in the chair, setting his grace aside. "I'll hold onto it for a little longer," he told her. "Maybe fashion it into my own sword." That way, he could fight her demons for her.
That way, she could stay his little one for as long as she needed.
